Former Sheffield United chief Kevin McCabe says West Ham might have gone bust because of the Carlos Tevez affair.
The sides meet on Saturday for the first time since West Ham were ordered to pay compensation to United for breaking the rules on third-party ownership by signing Tevez.
Tevez's goals kept West Ham up in 2007 as the Blades were relegated on the final day.
McCabe settled on 20m in compensation to help safeguard West Ham's future because he sees them as a working-class club like the Blades.
We set the amount," said the former Blades' owner and chairman. We sorted it out rather than letting the panel decide. I wanted to do that because even though we'd been wronged, I really did feel it was the right thing to do.
They were really challenging moments, peculiar times. Iceland's monetary system had effectively gone and if we'd have really pushed, there was a feeling the same thing might happen to West Ham as well.
So we came to an arrangement in good spirit. We didn't let the arbitration panel decide. We did it for the right reasons.
I had no interest in seeing a club potentially go out of business. I don't think that's what football should be about.
Yes, we felt we were entitled to something because we'd suffered and didn't agree with how things had been handled. But people should always remember how important football clubs are to the communities they represent."
