The Tevez/Mascherano saga

This isn't the FA, but the Premier League who have charged West Ham United with improper dealings relating to the signing of Tevez and Mascherano last summer. If they're found guilty (of failing to disclose the third-party ownership of the players, and not acting in good faith over the matter) they will be fined and/or docked points. West Ham are fighting the charge.

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I'm not going to prejudge this one. The one thing that strikes me is that the EPL has moved with the kind of pace we'd normally associate with the FA - it's fully six months since the pair signed for the Hammers and one of them has since moved on.

Javier Mascherano

I must confess to being a little confused about the controversy surrounding Mascherano's moves this season. Let's take the easy one first, the transfer from West Ham to Liverpool. FIFA rules apparently forbid a player from playing competitive games for more than two clubs in a season (where a season runs from July to June). The first club, Brazilian side Corinthians - being from South America - have a different season, so FIFA decided it wasn't a problem.

Now, the first one is more confusing. It seems* that Mascherano (and his compatriot Carlos Tevez) had registrations held not by West Ham but by Media Sports Investment, who were involved in a take-over bid for the Hammers at the time. Indeed, this third-party involvement was one of the reasons behind the delay in the Premier League allowing the second transfer to go through.

I can see there's something dubious about a player's registration not being held by a club, but I'd be grateful if anyone could put my uneasy feeling into words and maybe explain what's going on there.

* i.e., Wikipedia says.