Lineker: ‘Kewell was a pawn in a murky deal’

LIVERPOOL star Harry Kewell was a “pawn in a murky deal” where his personal manager took 40% of his transfer fee, soccer pundit Gary Lineker told the High Court yesterday.

The Match Of The Day anchorman said that he had no need to apologise for comments he made in a July 2003 newspaper column about Kewell's controversial transfer from Leeds.

"It was a subject I feel very strongly about. I've seen so many examples of this sort of deal in football over the years.

"It's the sort of deal which doesn't do the image of the game any good whatsoever a sport which is very much part of my life and I care about, coming out of it yet again badly over a transfer which was murky, I'm afraid."

He told Mr Justice Eady and a libel jury: "I haven't apologised, to be perfectly honest, because nothing that I have heard or read since has changed my view on this."

He added: "It wasn't transparent and everything that I have subsequently learned about it has made it murkier and murkier.

"So, far from feeling the need to apologise I actually feel, if I am allowed to say this, vindicated."

Lineker, Sunday Telegraph sports editor Jon Ryan and Telegraph Group Ltd are being sued by 26-year-old Kewell for substantial damages over a "hurtful and humiliating attack."

He claims that they accused him of being a fool and implied he was a knave who was guilty of dishonourable conduct.

Kewell joined Liverpool for a total five-year package of £13.5 million (€20.14m) after Leeds began selling players to ease their debts.

Leeds wanted £7m (€10.44m) but Liverpool offered £5m (€7.46m) plus an additional £2.4m (€3.58m) loyalty bonus to Kewell, payable over three years.

Out of the £5m (€7.46m) fee, £2m (€2.98m) went to Max Sport, a company run by Kewell's personal manager, Bernie Mandic, as payment for work it had done for Leeds in Australia.

Lineker, aged 44, who was never booked or sent off in his 17-year career which peaked when he captained England, said that the article was not a personal attack on Kewell, who he respected and admired.

It was aimed at the transfer system and the role of agents within it.

He still believed that none of the parties involved in the affair came out of it with any credit.

"Leeds were in a desperate negotiating position and Mr Mandic was in a position of great strength, which he used for himself very well.

"Both Liverpool and Leeds are in clear breach of the Fifa guidelines on that. It's a fact.

"Clubs cannot negotiate with a non-licensed agent."

Lineker said that Kewell did "perfectly well" out of the transfer but he could have done better.

Lineker told the court that £2m (€2.98m) seemed an "extraordinary" sum for an agent to collect in a deal.

It amounted to 40% of the transfer fee while it was usual for an agent to get 10% of the fee if acting for a club or, if acting for the player, 5% of his remuneration over the period of his contract.

The fact that the fee was justified by the Australian work was "totally irrelevant."

"There is no documentation as far as I know, or separate invoice, for works done in Australia.

"It seems to me that this work was for Harry's transfer."