FERGIE TO ISSUE DETAILS OF CLAIM

Last updated : 03 February 2004 By editor

Sir Alex Ferguson will go on the offensive today by providing the Irish billionaire John Magnier with the precise details of his case for joint ownership of Rock Of Gibraltar's breeding rights. A dossier outlining Ferguson's legal argument will be exchanged between the two sets of lawyers after Magnier's representatives went to the high court in Dublin yesterday to find out why the United manager and his solicitors had missed three deadlines to supply them with the particulars of their case.

Despite Ferguson's initial willingness to initiate peace talks, Magnier's lawyers issued a "motion to comply", which effectively asks the high court judge to enforce the release of the relevant documentation.

Ferguson's camp will contend there was nothing sinister about the delay and by supplying the paperwork to Magnier's team today they will make it clear they are willing to see the matter through.

Any lingering hopes of "reaching a resolution quickly", as Gill had put it last Friday, have diminished because of the time it will take Magnier's representatives to wade through the paperwork that is due to arrive at their offices in Dublin today.

Before any settlement can be negotiated, he and his business partner JP McManus will want to know the precise details of Ferguson's case and take expert advice on their chances of overcoming the 62-year-old United manager and his barrister Colm Allen.

Ferguson outlined the position of the case during a breakfast meeting with Gill yesterday. Gill, in turn, informed him that he and Gardner had drafted a response to Cubic's recent letter to the club in which 99 questions had been posed about transfer dealings, payments to agents and other business practices at Old Trafford. But United's directors fully expect Magnier and McManus to continue making life difficult for them.