Sheffield United are considering taking their fight to the High Court to force Kia Joorabchian to hand over paperwork relating to the transfer of Carlos Tévez to West Ham United.

The Times understand that the businessman, who owns the economic rights to the Argentina forward, has documents that could have important ramifications for the Yorkshire club’s hopes of challenging the decision not to deduct points from West Ham for breaching Premier League rules in the registration of Tévez and Javier Mascherano, the Argentina players. The paperwork has never been seen by the Premier League.

Sheffield United appeared to have lost their battle to avoid relegation after they were told by an arbitration panel, which met in London yesterday, that it had “much sympathy” for their grievances, but that the Premier League commission’s decision to fine West Ham £5.5 million, rather than dock points, was not unreasonable enough to be considered incorrect.

However, the three-man panel chaired by Sir Philip Otton, offered some hope to the Bramall Lane club by concluding that had it been sitting in judgment originally, it would not have reached the same decision.

“This tribunal would in all probability have reached a different conclusion and deducted points from West Ham,” the panel said. “We would, for example, have given much more weight to the deliberate deceit by West Ham officials, which concealed the existence of the third-party arrangements.

“However, it was impossible for this tribunal to find that the decision was irrational or perverse. The fact that we may disagree with the decision or that others may have genuine and passionate criticism of it is insufficient to warrant intervention.”

Sheffield United are now considering whether the panel’s misgivings may imply that the original Premier League commission that met in April, placed excessive weight on inappropriate reasons, such as taking fans into account and not docking points because it would have consigned West Ham to certain relegation. Sheffield United believe that if that were the case, they could overturn the decision in a separate case against the Premier League’s decision in the High Court.

A decision as to whether they will pursue their action will be taken after consultation with lawyers. “We are obviously very disappointed by this conclusion, in particular in circumstances where the tribunal recognised that the outcome of the decision turned out to be ‘unfortunate in the extreme’, and that Sheffield United have done nothing wrong to merit this outcome,” a club statement said.

Sheffield United are also considering seeking compensation from the Premier League, having estimated that relegation will cost them £50 million. The Yorkshire club, who finished three points behind West Ham on a final day of Premiership drama, had a request for a fresh disciplinary hearing into the affair turned down after the panel established that the correct disciplinary procedures were followed.

The panel also accepted that the Premier League had done enough to ensure that West Ham had ripped up the third-party agreement with Tévez, once West Ham were found guilty of the breaches. There were three matches of the season left at that point, with Tévez playing a significant role in rescuing West Ham from the drop.

The owners of Tévez, who remain in talks with Manchester United about the forward playing at Old Trafford this season, have always denied that they gave agreement to the termination of the contract.

“The arrangement may not have been legally watertight, but was a practical and workable solution to a difficult situation,” the panel said. “It is to be doubted that the [Premier] League or anyone else foresaw the spectacular results of the last three matches.”