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Were you surprised by the extent of the revelations contained in last year’s “Fergie & Son” TV programme screened on BBC 1 (28/05/04)? Surely, you would ask yourself, a man of Alex Ferguson’s reputation and stature would not allow himself to become embroiled in such shenanigans? Ask again. Furthermore, you could be forgiven for reasoning that if a man of Sir Alex’s standing can seemingly – nay, knowingly - flout football’s regulations, then what sort of signal does that send out to other club managers? Precisely. For those of you who may have missed the programme, and it’s subsequent re-screening, the basis of the story revolved around the activities of Sir Alex’s (unlicensed) football agent son, Jason - particularly within the secretive confines of Manchester United FC One of the many poignant issues raised by the researcher and interviewer, Alex Millar, was in regard to the extent of the involvement of Jason’s father - both in respect of deal negotiations and client procurement (the programme was able to show that eleven players, currently then on Manchester United’s books, were clients of the Elite Sports Agency, the company which Jason Ferguson worked with). Still doubtful that such things actually go on? You might want to pick up a copy of Michael Crick’s unauthorised Ferguson biography (“The Boss: The many sides of Alex Ferguson”) and check out, amongst many other interesting and revealing passages, the part that deals with the “tapping up” of the goalkeeper Jim Leighton, when he was still a contracted and registered player with Aberdeen FC. To date, I’m not aware of any legal challenge, by Sir Alex or otherwise, to question any of the content of Michael Crick’s book. Draw your own conclusions from that. To make matters worse, our football associations are gloriously and historically inept in their flaccid attempts to redress this aspect of football’s wrongdoings. Keep in mind that, in the world of football agency - where the transfer of the right player to the right club can sometimes earn the deal broker upwards of a million pounds alone - there’s bound to be greed, and there’s bound to be corruption. To focus on a relatively recent example, a distinctly unsettling set of circumstances appeared to surround the matter of the high-profile Jaap Stam transfer from Manchester United to Lazio, in August of 2001 (Interestingly, it’s alleged that Stam fell foul of Ferguson as a result of a veiled allegation in Stam’s book, that Ferguson had made an illegal approach for him, when Stam was still contracted to his former club in Holland). Can we realistically expect all the facts of such a dealing to be laid bare, when Manchester United’s very investigation into the matter was conducted, internally, by one of their own directors? For my part, I’m kinda doubtful. In my experienced view, it happened something like this: Sir Alex tipped off his agent son Jason, as to the opportunity for involvement in the Jaap Stam deal, once the player was out of favour at his club. Jason Ferguson, in turn, wheeled his old buddy Mike Morris into the proceedings to represent Manchester United while he, Jason, commissioned Lazio for his part in the whole complex affair. Therefore, in terms of the Elite Football Agency there is the possibility that they, Jason Ferguson and Mike Morris, accumulated almost a million pounds of aggregated commission out of the overall deal. Here’s the begging question: how was the £700,000, allegedly paid to Mike Morris by Manchester United for his involvement in the deal, ultimately apportioned? We can but wonder. It has been shown, beyond reasonable doubt (otherwise, again, we would surely have seen a legal challenge from the Ferguson camp), that Ferguson senior verbally bullied certain of the younger members of the Manchester United playing staff into signing with Ferguson junior’s agency. Why should we then be naïve enough to believe that the subject of Jaap Stam’s availability for transfer would not have surfaced at the family Sunday dinner? So, in summary, the Fergusons have demonstrated that if you’re big enough, successful enough – and arrogant enough – within our so-called beautiful game, then there’s a fair chance you can get away with anything, with little more recompense than a cautionary slap on the wrist. The final irony? All those poor (literally) misguided legions of Manchester United fans who, in the process of publicising their undying allegiance, from the terraces, to Alex Ferguson - when such issues of alleged impropriety surface - might pause to question why it’s costing them so much of their hard-earned cash to purchase their annual season ticket. Aye, as my learned friend Gavin would say, it’s not money that’s the root of all evil - it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil.
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