Aldridge May Be Called in West Ham Appeal

Paul Aldridge has emerged as a key figure in the battle between West Ham United and Sheffield United over the £30m Carlos Tevez affair.

Aldridge, the former West Ham chief executive, has had a stain against his reputation ever since Simon Bourne-Arton, the lead panelist in the original tribunal hearing against the Hammers, stated he had "deliberately misled" the Premier League. It was over this finding that the club was fined £5.5m and now finds itself with a £30m demand for compensation from Bramall Lane.

The case swung on whether Aldridge had acted in good faith in his dealings with the league over the registrations of Tevez and Javier Mascherano. But Aldridge was not offered the opportunity to explain himself as West Ham's now-departed executive chairman, Eggert Magnusson, acted on legal advice and decided to change the club's plea to guilty without calling Aldridge to the witness stand.

Aldridge later forced the league to clarify on its website that he had not had the opportunity to defend himself after Sir Philip Otton's appeals ruling took Bourne-Arton's evidence so far as to accuse him of telling a "direct lie".

West Ham's route to appeal yesterday's judgment at the Court of Arbitration for Sport would be made simpler if fresh evidence is unearthed and it is possible that Aldridge, who is now chief operating officer at Manchester City, could be called. If the Hammers choose not to head to the CAS, they will instead challenge the size of the award being demanded by Sheffield United.

Burnham's question time

The hottest ticket for fringe events around the labor party conference in Manchester on Monday night was the Football Association's MPs v press quiz. The FA hired the swanky Bar 38 and it was packed. Despite the presence of the sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, and Alan Keen, Labour's chair of the all-party football group, it was the Evertonian culture secretary, Andy Burnham, who stood out in the MPs' three-man team (though the press prevailed). It does not take the political savvy of a labor peer like the FA's chairman, David Triesman, to recognize that this government's days are numbered. Even so, it can surely be no coincidence that Sunday will be the first time the FA's roadshow heads to a Conservative party conference.

Slow track for funding

Sutcliffe was also a keynote speaker at a fringe meeting for UK Sport. But his presence there belied the tensions between the elite sports bodies and government over the budget plans in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. The quango will discuss its budgets at a board meeting next week before signing them off in December. The government's "Medal Hopes" program, announced by Burnham at the Beijing Games, has yet to be taken to market by its commercial adviser, Fast Track. So how UK Sport will calculate what it has at its disposal is a mystery.

Agent loses license

The impression that the FA is only interested in attacking the little guy will have been inflated by the suspension of the agent's license of Faisal Kashmiri. The little-known transfer-market operator and Crystal Palace were fined £25,000 for breaking rules preventing agents from representing the same player in two successive transactions. In the meantime, the £1m spent on Quest's bungs inquiry has brought no charges.

Fans pay for takeover

Queens Park Rangers might be the richest club in the land - at least until Sheik Mansour Al Nahyan's takeover of Manchester City is completed - but fans should be careful what they wish for. Loftus Road is a billionaires' playground, with Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore, left, and Lakshmi Mittal on the board. Yet that has not prevented price hikes to £50 for "platinum" tickets as QPR (only trophy the 1967 League Cup) is transformed into what they like to think of as a boutique club. A £10 price increase was due to be levied on visiting fans ahead of the "Category A" match against Derby County this weekend; until the Football League's board pointed out on Monday that mid-season price increases for away fans are illegal under its regulations.