Crystal Palace were offered an astonishing 'commission',
thought to be around £1 million, to act as a go-between in an
elaborately conceived transfer plot to get Gabriel Heinze from
Manchester United to Liverpool. And now United are demanding that
the Football Association investigate Liverpool's role in the
affair, which is turning out to be a dramatic follow-up of the
Argentine's £8m move to Real Madrid last Thursday.
The plan, allegedly thought up by Heinze's representatives, called
for Palace to buy the player from United then sell him on to
Liverpool. It foundered when the London club refused to cooperate
and, instead, made both Manchester United and the Premier League
aware of the approach.
Palace chief executive Phil Alexander subsequently gave evidence
about both the contact and the proposed financial incentive, made
by a lawyer named Richard Green purporting to be acting on behalf
of Heinze's agents, to the Premier League tribunal who decided to
uphold United's stance in refusing to sell the defender to their
Merseyside rivals.
'I presented evidence about the approach to the Premier League and
to Manchester United. It was up to the League to interpret it as
they saw fit,' said Alexander, who also insisted the contact came
completely out of the blue without any possible prior inclination
that Palace might be willing to co-operate in the matter.
Although Heinze's representative Roberto Rodriguez insisted he knew
nothing about the approach to Palace, the two-man commission of
Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards and Peter McCormack, a
solicitor and former Leeds United director, threw out the South
American's claims and backed Alexander's version of what happened,
making it a major factor in their decision.
Now the Premier League are piecing together a dossier containing
all the details about the attempt to involve Palace and will
present it to the FA. 'There will obviously be an inquiry,' said a
league source. Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson revealed that United
would be pressing hard for a full FA investigation into whether
Liverpool had any prior knowledge of the convoluted transfer
scheme.
'We are certainly investigating that and I would imagine we will be
going to the FA,' he insisted. Asked whether United would make an
official complaint to the FA, the United manager answered: 'We are
investigating Liverpool at this moment in time. That is all I can
say. Absolutely, we will take it as far as it goes.'
