I'm amazed West Ham have agreed to this, and I think they're doing it for all the wrong reasons.
Forget for a moment anything about Tevez, admission of guilt or fairness in football [sic], West Ham - or more accurately Gudmunsson - have done this purely finalise the value of the club, and therefore make it easier to sell - eradicating that "what if" element.
Fair enough, Gudmunsson is broke, and needs to sell off about the only asset he has left of value to pay back Kneecaps R Us back in Iceland. But at what price to the club?
I might be wasting my time on this board, and no doubt my post will be followed by a long chorus of "cheats" and "serves you right" etc, but I can't help but feel that this will only serve to label West Ham forever as a club that doesn't abide by the rules - and by the club, I mean the playing staff, and the fans.
Let us not forget, that it was the likes of Brown, Duxbury & Joorabchain who brought all this about, and not your average football fan who wants nothing other than to see his (or her) team win every week.
Gudmunsson will likely, ultimately, gain by agreeing to a pay out, but the club certainly won't, and nor will us loyal fans, who will no doubt now have to endure endless newspaper articles written by lazy journalists who only bother to research half the facts, and continue to tell us over and over how Tevez scored the goal on the last day to keep us up.
Good luck with the promotion chase, I hope we get to play you lot in the Prem next year (would be a goodun), but I can't help but feel McCabe will be trousering most of that cash.