Sheffield United have stepped up their fight against the Premier League after taking their case to the High Court. The club have asked for an emergency hearing, which would probably sit next week, to appeal the decision of an arbitration panel to dismiss their claims over the Carlos Tévez affair. The court will decide today whether Sheffield United have grounds for appeal.

The Yorkshire club were told by an arbitration panel on Tuesday that it would probably have deducted points from West Ham United for breaching Premier League rules in the registration of Tévez and Javier Mascherano, his fellow Argentinian, had it been sitting in judgment originally. Sheffield United have separately asked Kia Joorabchian, who owns the economic rights to Tévez, to hand over paper-work relating to the transfer of the forward because it may help their case.

Sheffield United were buoyed by that conclusion, but they are unhappy that the panel refused to analyse the seven reasons given by the Premier League commission for fining West Ham £5.5 million in April, rather than deducting points. The Yorkshire club believe that the role of the arbitration panel extended from considering whether procedures were followed correctly to also examining whether the commission’s judgment was lawful.

The club feel that the arbitration panel might have considered that some of the seven reasons were inappropriate, improper, unduly weighted or even incorrect. The club feel that they may, in turn, have been the deciding factor in choosing not to deduct points from West Ham.

In particular, Sheffield United feel that it was unjustified for the League commission to take into account the feelings of West Ham players and supporters and the timing of the hearing, which meant that a deduction of points would “certainly have relegated” West Ham. Sheffield United believe that if that were the case, they could overturn the Premier League’s decision in the High Court.

The Premier League claims to be confident that it can defend any further legal action. “The Premier League has just been advised by our legal team that Sheffield United have launched an appeal in the High Court against the award of our arbitration panel yesterday,” a Premier League spokesman said in a statement.

“Our legal team inform us that this is a very narrow window of appeal where Sheffield United are claiming that the Arbitration Panel under Sir Philip Otton made an error in law by failing to send back the original decision to the Independent Disciplinary Commission for reconsideration. The Premier League has acted at all times in accordance with our rule book and procedures, as such we expect this matter to be expedited as quickly as possible and, again, we will not be altering any plans for next season.”

Sheffield United, who finished three points behind West Ham, who escaped relegation on the final day of the season, had a request for a fresh disciplinary hearing into the affair turned down by the panel. It established that the correct disciplinary procedures were followed and said the original decision could not be judged “perverse or irrational”.

Sheffield United are also considering seeking compensation from the League because relegation will cost them £50 million. The club completed the signing of Billy Sharp, the forward they released two years ago, from Scunthorpe United for about £2 million. He scored 32 goals last season as Scunthorpe won promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship.