West Ham United have turned to former Manchester United director Maurice Watkins to lead their fight against a £30million payout in the Carlos Tevez affair.

Top solicitor Watkins has signed up after the Hammers sacked their lawyers in the fallout from Monday's bombshell ruling, says The Sun.

West Ham believe Watkins will give them the best chance of reducing the financial impact of the compensation order after growing fed up with their own team of lawyers.

Travers Smith were axed on Tuesday - 24 hours after a three-man panel ruled in favour of the Blades to reopen one of the most bitter courtroom wrangles in football history.

Watkins, who defended United star Eric Cantona after his infamous kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, will lead the Irons' appeal at the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Switzerland.

A West Ham statement read: "We do not accept that one player's contribution can be placed over that of the team as a whole nor used as the basis for judging the results of a 38-game season.

"This ruling undermines the significant efforts of our entire squad and coaching staff over the duration of the 2006-07 Premier League season and does not take sufficient account of the performances of the other 19 clubs in the competition.

"We acknowledge again that the club broke Premier League rules in the original signing of Carlos Tevez but we were dealt with accordingly by an independent Premier League commission and accepted the significant punishment handed down at that time."