McCabe ordered to sell up
10-man Hammers deny brawl boys
A HIGH Court ruled that Kevin McCabe must sell his Sheffield United shares to Prince Abdullah for £5m.
But despite losing the two-year legal battle, lifelong Blades fan McCabe is considering launching an appeal.
He said he felt “betrayed” after High Court judge Mr Justice Bancroft’s verdict.
The 262-page judgement, delivered in London yesterday, was the finding of a 19-day trial during the summer after co-owners Prince Abdullah, a member of the Saudi royal family, and McCabe fell out in 2017.
Claims by McCabe’s Sheffield United Ltd for damages were also dismissed by Mr Justice Bancroft.
A statement on behalf of the McCabe family said: “Kevin McCabe is bitterly disappointed with the outcome of today’s judgement.
“Kevin feels a deep sense of betrayal.”
Both men took 50-50 ownership six years ago when the club were in League One.
A statement by the Prince Abdullah said: “I’m delighted that this judgement brings an end to the uncertainty.”
WEST HAM missed out on going third in the table – but the big talking point was a bust-up between two Aston Villa players.
Anwar El Ghazi was at the centre of a crazy head-butt on team-mate Tyrone Mings shortly before half-time.
The Hammers went into the game knowing a fourth successive win would shoot them above fourthplaced Tottenham and make them the capital’s top club in the process.
But they just could not manage it and when they went down to 10 men with 23 minutes left, after Arthur Masuaku was sent off, they probably went home happy with a point.
The fact they did that was largely down to keeper Lukasz Fabianski, who kept the home side at bay with a string of fine stops.
That plus Jack Grealish totally misjudging his close-range shot with just minutes to go.
Masuaku was unfortunate to go for a second yellow when sub Ahmed Elmohamady looked to go down easily under his challenge. But El Ghazi was fortunate to stop on after his brush with his team-mate.
Mings appeared to be shouting at the Dutchman when El Ghazi clearly moved his head towards the face of the big central defender.
Referee Mike Dean was clearly getting instruction that something had happened but play went on and the verdict had to have been that it was not serious enough to warrant action.
But it certainly was not what footballers like to call “handbags” and Mings had good reason to look displeased by his team-mate’s over-the-top reaction. England boss Gareth Southgate looked on from the stands, no doubt taking the opportunity to run the rule over West Ham’s Declan Rice and Villa trio Tom Heaton, Grealish and Mings.
West Ham threatened first when Andriy Yarmolenko looked set to score until Bjorn Engels got in a great block.
And they came close to taking the lead midway through the half when Sebastien Haller powered a header just wide of the post after Anderson had found him with a cross.
But it was West Ham goalkeeper Fabianski who was the man right in the thick of things.
First he did something that must have flashed through Mings’ mind – he flattened El Ghazi contesting a high ball into the box from Jota.
Fabianski clearly won the but left the Villa man ball first needing treatment after being smashed to the ground a split-second later.
The Hammers keeper kept things level with a superb diving one-handed save to push away a testing 20-yarder from John McGinn.
Earlier on he had come to the rescue when he scrambled down to his lefthand post to keep out a Wesley closerange header which was flying towards the corner of his net.
Wesley had given the goalkeeper a warning shot in the 14th minute as he met Grealish’s pinpoint cross with power but his header ended up flying just outside the angle.
Shortly after the break Villa went close again when the ever-dangerous McGinn scraped the post with another effort from the edge of the area.
Then Fabianski was called into action once more to smother a Wesley shot as the game ended all square.