Rafael Benítez accused the Premier League yesterday of hindering Liverpool’s chances of winning the championship by giving preferential treatment to Manchester United over the Carlos Tévez and Gabriel Heinze transfer sagas as well as kick-off times.

In an outburst that will further sour Liverpool’s relations with United, BenÍtez condemned a Premier League arbitration panel for refusing to sanction Heinze’s proposed £6.8 million move from United to Liverpool and claimed that the organisation made it harder for them to sign Javier Mascherano from West Ham United in January than it was for the champions to take Tévez from the London club to Old Trafford this month.

Heinze will appeal against the decision after the arbitration panel ruled that a signed letter from David Gill, the United chief executive, that the Argentina defender said entitled him to join any club offering £6.8 million for his services, was not legally binding.

Evidence given to the arbitration panel that emerged yesterday is likely to prove embarrassing, though. It was revealed that Heinze’s representatives tried to bypass United’s block on the player moving to Liverpool by engineering a move to Crystal Palace first.

Under the proposal made to Palace, Heinze would have been bought by the South London club and sold on to Liverpool. It is understood that the bid was revealed in evidence given to the Premier League panel this week by Phil Alexander, the Palace chief executive.

BenÍtez also claimed that there was a conspiracy against Liverpool regarding kick-off times and asked why his team were having to play more games on Saturday lunchtimes after international breaks than the other leading teams.

Liverpool play Sunderland at 12.45pm at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, the first of four Saturday lunchtime away games involving the club between now and the end of November that follow international fixtures. In that time, United, Arsenal and Chelsea have no Saturday lunchtime games that directly follow an international break.

“I would like to ask the Premier League a number of questions,” the Liverpool manager said. “How can a player with a signed agreement be treated like this? He [Heinze] has a document which is clear, but the Premier League prefers to believe the word of someone else [Gill] who made a mistake.

“I know there were accusations made against Liverpool in the hearing which were unbelievable. How can this be allowed? Then I would like to ask the Premier League why it is that Liverpool always plays the most fixtures away from home in an early kick-off following an international break? We had more than the top clubs last season and we have four already to prepare for this season.

“Then I want to ask the Premier League why it was so difficult for Liverpool to sign Javier Mascherano, when we had to wait a long time for the paperwork, but it was so easy for Carlos Tévez to join Manchester United.

“It’s going to be very difficult for us to win the Premier League because the other teams are so strong, but I want our supporters to know that, despite the disadvantages we have, we will fight all the way. We will fight to cope with our more difficult kick-off times and all the other decisions which are going against us.”

The last player to move between United and Liverpool was Phil Chisnall, who went to Anfield in 1964.

BenÍtez’s tirade is the clearest sign yet of just how strained relations between the clubs have become over the Heinze affair, but there are no indications that the matter is about to be resolved any time soon.

Lyons, Juventus and Real Madrid are all interested in Heinze, with United happy to sell to any of them, but the player appears to be ready to risk being stuck in limbo for a year in an effort to force through a move to Anfield.

Although it is unlikely that Heinze’s appeal will be heard until next month, since United have 14 days to respond to any request for an appeal, if the player is successful in being awarded a fresh hearing, the Premier League, given the delicate nature of the matter, would be willing to invoke rule M4, which would allow the transfer to proceed outside the transfer window that closes in eight days’ time.

However, should Heinze’s appeal, which will be heard by a new three-man panel, fail, the defender risks being stuck in United’s reserve team for a season before he can invoke a Fifa ruling that would allow him to buy himself out of his contract with the club.

A spokesman for the Premier League said that they were “disappointed” by BenÍtez’s comments.

He said: “The Premier League try to make sure that our dealings with all our member clubs, including the scheduling of fixtures, are as fair as possible.

“We are disappointed to read Rafael BenÍtez’s comments in the press, especially when channels exist for every member club to raise issues directly with the league.”