How could you allow this farce?

The demand came after the arbitration panel that reviewed their handling of the Carlos Tevez affair concluded that the original independent disciplinary commission should have deducted points from West Ham.

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Sheffield United ultimately failed in their bid to gain reinstatement to the Premier League after the panel explained that they were in no position to overturn the original decision.

Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic chairman who has led the campaign for justice, believes that chief executive Scudamore and chairman Richards should 'consider their positions' after the panel, in his opinion, sided with the aggrieved clubs.

In a 34-page document that was finally released yesterday, the three-man panel said that "in all probability" they would have punished West Ham with a points deduction rather than a £5.5million fine for selecting Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in the knowledge that they were subject to third-party ownership agreements that amounted to a serious breach of Premier League rules.

"We have much sympathy for Sheffield United's grievances arising from the decision and the manner it was arrived at," said the panel. "We would go so far as to say that this tribunal would in all probability have reached a different conclusion and deducted points from West Ham. We would, for example, have given much more weight to the deliberate deceit by West Ham officials which concealed the existence of third-party arrangements."

Sheffield United now plan to take the Premier League and West Ham to the High Court to force them to reveal paperwork relating to Tevez and Mascherano which they claim has not yet come into the public domain.

As the arbitration panel explained, however, they were unable to reverse the decision of the independent commission that was made in April.

For that reason Sheffield United remain relegated — at a cost of £50million — while West Ham look forward to another season in the Premiership.

Whelan expressed his regret that ultimately "justice has not been done".

"It's been a botched affair," he told Sportsmail. "All kinds of things have been done incorrectly and, from what I can tell, covered up. And so much time has been wasted getting to this point.

"Why, when they knew about this shortly after Christmas, did it take until the end of April to have the original hearing? And why is it only now, in July, that we have reached this stage? I'm sure nothing can now be done for Sheffield United and that is very sad. It just isn't right.

"What the arbitration panel are saying backs up everything Wigan, Sheffield United, Fulham, Charlton and Middlesbrough have been saying all along, and if the arbitration panel think it's wrong, then Richard Scudamore and Dave Richards have seriously got to consider their positions."

The arbitration panel, led by Sir Philip Otton, spent two days last month reviewing all the evidence and did recognise that the Premier League followed the processes laid out in their own rules.

A Premier League statement said: "We welcome the conclusions of the arbitration panel and respect the judgement they have published."

Sheffield United said they will consider the findings, adding: "We are obviously very disappointed by this conclusion. We have done nothing wrong to merit this outcome."