McClaren’s agent attacked over bung claim

PRESSURE is building on Steve McClaren’s agent Colin Gordon to produce evidence of corruption in football after his claims that the English game is viewed as “the dirty man of Europe”.

Fri, 29 Sep, 2006 - 01:00

Martyn Ziegler

Gordon, who is also Theo Walcott’s agent, claimed the practice of ‘bung-taking’ is rife in the game and is a “very sophisticated business”.

There has been a furious reaction from the Association of Football Agents, while the FA will be writing to Gordon to ask him to back up his remarks.

A statement from the AFA’s head Mel Stein read: “Our members take the strongest exception to being described as ‘scum of the earth’ and clearly, by innuendo if not specifically, being included in Mr Gordon’s comments that ‘the majority of agents are corrupt’.”

Stein goes on to condemn Gordon’s “scatter-gun” approach and claims he should have brought his views to the FA’s attention.

The statement continued: “The association and our members consider the statements made by Mr Gordon to be not only reckless and inappropriate but also potentially defamatory and are considering their position in that respect. They will be contacting Mr Gordon personally to seek a retraction and an apology.”

Gordon’s outburst was so strong that it has caused upheaval in the game, which was only just settling down after last week’s Panorama allegations about illegal payments.

One Premiership club chairman said: “All this is so damaging to the game, yet it is just claim after claim – what we have yet to see is any hard evidence.”

Gordon claimed tens of millions of pounds had gone out of the Premiership through irregular payments: “If I buy a player from eastern Europe and find he is valued at £2 million by his club, I say, ‘I can sell him for £5m in England’. The club get £500,000 but the other £2.5m makes its way into a separate account.

“We’re not talking about the £500,000 bungs, or the old brown paper envelope stuffed with a few notes. We’re talking about millions upon millions. It is a very sophisticated business. It’s cleverly disguised.”