Probity?...

[BCM]

Exclusive: Liverpool accused of falsifying document at heart of tapped-up schoolboy case    Ben Rumsby

11 July 2017 • 6:01pm

The Liverpool tapping-up scandal was dramatically reignited on Tuesday after they were accused of submitting a “falsified” document to the Premier League when trying to lure a 12-year-old schoolboy from Stoke City.

The Anfield club are facing imminent legal action from the unnamed boy, now 13, and his family, having failed to make amends for leaving both him unable to play academy football and his parents in thousands of pounds of debt more than three months after Telegraph Sport first revealed their plight.

Compounding the litany of transgressions over which Liverpool became the first club to be punished under strict new Premier League rules - and the lengths to which they were allegedly prepared to go to conceal them - they have now been publicly accused of altering the date of a signature on his academy player registration application.

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Father and son completed the document  on September 2  last year, three days before the latter began the new school year at his private school, the fees for which Liverpool had agreed to pay until he was 16.

The club directed the pair not to date their signatures, an instruction the father ignored to ensure the moment was accurately recorded.

 

The next time the family saw the document - after it had been submitted to the Premier League - all the signatures on it were dated  September 21, including the father’s, beneath which a ‘1’ had been inserted after his initial ‘2’.

The new date made it appear he and his son had signed more than two weeks after the latter had started school, rather than three days beforehand.

“If that is not falsifying a document, I don’t know what is,” the father told the Telegraph on Tuesday night. 

He also confirmed he had informed the Premier League of the unauthorised date change when he originally blew the whistle on Liverpool’s near two-year campaign to tap up his son, for which they were banned in April from signing players from rival academies for at least 12 months and fined £100,000.

The father accused the Premier League of failing to act over the document and questioned why it had also shelved an investigation last month into Liverpool’s tapping up of Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool stopped their pursuit of Virgil van Dijk after Southampton asked the Premier League to investigate an alleged illegal approach for the defender Credit: PA

“If this is how it deals with such matters then the Premier League is not fit for purpose,” he added.

Liverpool refused to deny altering the date of the father’s signature on the document without his consent or dating the other signatures  September 21  before submitting it to the Premier League.

 

They said it was standard practice for such documents to be filed within a period of days after being completed and that, because other relevant paperwork was not ready by  September 2 , a decision was made to leave the boy’s registration application undated.

They also said the reason for this was explained at the time to the family, who they even claimed had consented to it, despite the father’s dating of his own signature indicating otherwise.

They categorically denied  “falsifying” the document or changing the date to make it appear the club had not agreed to pay the boy’s school fees until after he had begun his new school year.The Premier League confirmed it had “considered” the date change allegation as part of its tapping-up investigation, which it said was at an end.

The family wants a court to rule on the matter as part a lawsuit over the boy’s school fees and £49,000 in compensation owed to Stoke for the four years they spent developing him, which is preventing him joining another academy.

Liverpool would have paid both had their attempts to sign the boy not collapsed thanks to a crackdown last summer on Premier League clubs paying for their scholars to be privately educated.

 

The scandal has left the boy’s family £15,000 in debt and him in constant threat of being thrown out of school for non-payment of his fees.

Talks have taken place aimed at averting a bitter court battle, the family’s case having been boosted by Manchester City agreeing to pay the entire school fees and training compensation of two schoolboys they were found guilty of tapping up.

Steven Gerrard is the current manager of Liverpool Under 18s Credit: LIVERPOOL FC

The father said: “What Liverpool have done brings shame on that football club. They have ruined my son’s career and left him in despair. He has been in limbo for a year now, thanks to the £49,000 price on his head, and is being blackballed by other clubs. No-one will touch him.

“The Premier League’s handling of this case has only made matters worse.

“The richest league in the world sells its dream of football to youngsters across the globe but its rules have created a nightmare for my lad.

“The Premier League is supposed to regulate these football clubs but, to me, it feels more like a private members’ club where everyone looks after each other.

“All it and its clubs seem to care about is making sure they keep getting their tens of millions of pounds.

 

“The fact a 13-year-old child can no longer pursue his dream of playing football doesn’t appear to matter.

“As a responsible parent, I call on the Government to intervene before we have a generation of damaged children.”

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The boy, who broke his silence on the matter in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph in May, added: “In the past 12 months, my whole world has crashed around me. Some mornings, I wake up and think it has been a bad dream.

“I miss playing football so much. It was such a massive part of my life. I used to come home from school and could not wait to go to training sessions.

“All of these people in high places need to look at what their rules do to everyday kids like me. We are promised all of these great things and then, when it suits, we are just dropped.

“I gave everything I had to football and thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

“Now I am being punished and I have no idea what for.”

A Premier League spokesman said: “We remain in dialogue with the parties involved with a view to finding a constructive outcome for the young player involved.”

 

[aRdja]

[emoji22]

[Rorschach08]

 

 

 

The boy, who broke his silence on the matter in an exclusive interview with the Telegraph in May, added: “In the past 12 months, my whole world has crashed around me. Some mornings, I wake up and think it has been a bad dream.

“I miss playing football so much. It was such a massive part of my life. I used to come home from school and could not wait to go to training sessions.

“All of these people in high places need to look at what their rules do to everyday kids like me. We are promised all of these great things and then, when it suits, we are just dropped.

“I gave everything I had to football and thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

“Now I am being punished and I have no idea what for.”

 

 

 

 

Really sounds like the words of a 12 year old boy that.  Just needs a picture of him looking forlornly at some other kids having a kickabout to really make it complete.

[Rushies tash]

Don't want to excuse what the club have done in any way, but I like the single sentence given over to Man City having done exactly the same thing. Twice.

[Jairzinho]

 

Really sounds like the words of a 12 year old boy that.  Just needs a picture of him looking forlornly at some other kids having a kickabout to really make it complete.

 

 

He sounds more like fucking Roy Hodgson than a 12 year old.

[Dr Nowt]

This is comfortably my favourite bit of LFC news since we won the League Cup under Kenny.

[jimmycase]

I think we dodged a bullet there.

[Dr Nowt]

A la Alex Murphy towards the start of Robocop, by the sounds of it.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Why was there a crackdown on clubs getting their players privately educated.

[jimmycase]

Why was there a crackdown on clubs getting their players privately educated.

 

There isnt. The new rule is all kids in an academy have to be treated the same in all respects. LFC send all their kids to the same school but this lad, for some reason, was in private education. This meant LFC would have to put all their other kids into private education to match his conditions.

 

When the club realised this, they backed out of the deal to sign him but by this time, the parents had committed to the fees (in the expectation we'd pay them).

 

The parents or rather father then complained at this point and continues to complain, now resorting to legals once the PL said it has taken the necessary action.

 

I think this kid is not being touched by other clubs for reasons other than to do with football as he seems to suggest.

[moof]

I fail to see how the club has ruined this kid's life, as the article appears to be suggesting. What the fuck?

[Trumo]

Why was there a crackdown on clubs getting their players privately educated.

 

It's deemed to be a non-footballing inducement.

 

Anyway, I'm sure the owners will be along shortly to offer a public apology. That is certainly something they under-promise and over-deliver on.

[VladimirIlyich]

There isnt. The new rule is all kids in an academy have to be treated the same in all respects. LFC send all their kids to the same school but this lad, for some reason, was in private education. This meant LFC would have to put all their other kids into private education to match his conditions.

 

When the club realised this, they backed out of the deal to sign him but by this time, the parents had committed to the fees (in the expectation we'd pay them).

 

The parents or rather father then complained at this point and continues to complain, now resorting to legals once the PL said it has taken the necessary action.

 

I think this kid is not being touched by other clubs for reasons other than to do with football as he seems to suggest.

So now English youngsters are going to be given return tickets to Cameroon and Senegal?

[Kevin D]

Cunt Stoke schoolboy.

[Dr Nowt]

I fail to see how the club has ruined this kid's life, as the article appears to be suggesting. What the fuck?

 

[YNWAViking]

Altering signed contract dates, the fuck? What are they smoking over at the Academy?

[VladimirIlyich]

Altering signed contract dates, the fuck? What are they smoking over at the Academy?

Its not the fumes from Sonai any more.