Sheffield United are spearheading a potential legal case against West Ham and the Premier League.
The Blades have hired an international firm of lawyers to assess whether action can be taken after the Hammers' points deduction let-off a week ago.
Plc chairman Kevin McCabe set to work within hours of the verdict being delivered by the commission last Friday.
McCabe said: ‘There was no hanging around, no grass growing around our feet. We took this course of action independently of anyone else in an attempt to try and protect ourselves should we suffer as a consequence of this bizarre decision.
‘We have some excellent and reputable lawyers who have already been looking at this matter for us for a week. Obviously we hope that we don't suffer as a result, but we felt this needed to be done.’
Although acting ‘independently’, the other clubs involved in the relegation scrap will be anxiously waiting to hear whether West Ham and the Premier League have a case to answer.
Hammers and Premier League officials will undoubtedly argue there has been no precedent set as the current furore surrounds third-party liability in the contracts of Tevez and Mascherano.
They will also indicate a points deduction was among a list of options open to the panel as punishment, and not the sole option.
In response, should the clubs pursue legal action, they will make clear points penalties have been issued before for seemingly far less serious offences.
Middlesbrough were deducted three points a decade ago for failing to fulfil a fixture as 16 players were either ill or injured, a judgement that condemned them to relegation from the Premiership.
Earlier this season, League Two Bury were thrown out of the FA Cup for fielding an ineligible player, while AFC Wimbledon suffered a worse fate for a similar offence in the FA Trophy.
The Isthmian League club were expelled from the competition, were initially docked 18 points that was reduced to three on appeal, and fined £400.
Simon Bourne-Arton QC, who headed the commission, also seemingly shot himself in the foot last week with his explanation of their decision.
One of their seven observations was that a points sanction at this stage of the season would have condemned the Hammers to certain relegation.
They added a different decision may well have been taken if the hearing had been in January as a points deduction with four months of the season remaining ‘would have been somewhat easier to bear’.
