Richard Scudamore faces the prospect of being subpoenaed to provide evidence in the Carlos Tevéz affair. The Premier League chief executive could end up in the witness box on August 22 to explain the role of the organisation in an increasingly complex legal battle over the ownership of the Argentina forward, which has been holding up his potential transfer to Manchester United.

Kia Joorabchian, who fronts the two companies that hold Tevéz’s “economic rights”, Media Sports Investments (MSI) and Just Sports Inc (JSI), will turn up the pressure on West Ham United today when he serves the particulars of claim documents at the High Court, detailing allegations about how the club breached their contract.

Lawyers for the companies are considering calling Scudamore to the stand. They are believed to want to know why the League gave West Ham the option of ripping up the contract with Tévez’s owners to allow him to play in the final three games of the season, helping the club to avoid relegation. The League also gave West Ham the option of amending the contracts, which may have meant Tevéz missing at least one match while the paperwork was ratified. The third option was of not playing the forward.

The companies’ lawyers will also want to know what communication took place between the League and West Ham in the past year since the League queried how the club had managed to secure the services of Tevéz and Javier Mascherano, Tevéz’s Argentina teammate, so cheaply and whether there were any documents that Scudamore had not seen.

The companies issued a writ against the club last week, seeking the court’s intervention to compel West Ham to release the registration of Tevéz in accordance with a contract that was agreed last summer when he and Mascherano arrived at Upton Park. Those deals were deemed to be in breach of Premier League rules by a commission that fined West Ham £5.5 million in April.

MSI and JSI will ask the court for a quick hearing, arguing that the extensive delay is causing hardship to Tevéz and preventing him from playing football and earning a living.

West Ham have offered the companies £5 million in exchange for the release of the registration of the player. However, MSI and JSI are likely to reject that proposal because the contract between the parties said that they would pay West Ham £100,000 should Tevéz leave this summer.

The Premier League board met yesterday to discuss West Ham’s offer. The League is concerned with protecting its reputation and it is worried that if West Ham do not receive the money from the transfer, it will appear that the third-party agreement between the club and Joorabchian for Tevéz was not ripped up.

Eggert Magnússon, the West Ham chairman, has resigned himself to losing Tevéz but wants to recover money because he remains aggrieved that the club were fined for actions of a previous regime. He has considered legal action against Terence Brown, the former chairman, and Paul Aldridge, the former managing director. Brown has said that he showed all documents to Magnússon.

Tevéz has agreed to a deal to move to Manchester United on loan for two seasons with the option of a permanent move, which could be worth more than £20 million.

The player would be eligible to sign for United after the end of the transfer window on August 31 if he was a free agent, but United would miss the same deadline for registering him for Champions League matches before Christmas.

Frank Yallop, the Los Angeles Galaxy coach, believes that Real Madrid’s treatment of David Beckham’s ankle injury has ruined the start of his career in the United States. The England midfield player will not travel with his teammates for the Galaxy’s SuperLiga clash with FC Dallas tonight, with Yallop claiming that Real’s desperation to get Beckham fit for the title-clinching final match of the season against Mallorca had aggravated the problem in his left ankle.

“He got a painkiller just to get him through the last game and a lot of scar tissue came from that,” Yallop said. “Because he did not feel the pain he did more damage to it.” Beckham is now hoping to play in a league match in Toronto on Sunday.