FOOTBALL AGENTS IN DISHONESTY SHOCKER!

Last week I revealed that Newcastle United had been found by a VAT and Duties tribunal to have systematically lied to the Football Association about the club's transfer dealings between 2001 and 2003. The tribunal also ruled that some of British football's top agents made false statements to the FA when registering transfers.

This week, I can name those agents. They include First Artist, run by brothers Jon and Paul Smith; Paul Stretford's Proactive agency; SFX, which represents Alan Shearer; Jonathan Barnett's agency Stellar, which acts for Kieron Dyer and Titus Bramble, and Key Sports, which represents Shola Ameobi.

On the official forms, G2 and H1, which clubs are required to lodge with the FA to register new signings or new contracts, Newcastle and the agents stated that the agents had acted solely for the club when in fact they were the players' agents.

Newcastle did this to avoid being seen by the FA to have breached one of football's main rules governing agents' conduct, that agents are allowed to act for only one party in a deal.

The tribunal judgment could hardly have been more emphatic. It said the agents were: "In breach of [the Fifa] regulations, having failed to adhere to [the agents'] Code of Professional Conduct, by behaving untruthfully."

The tribunal ruled that 21 of 24 player deals were carried out in the same way. The club approached the player's agent, asked him to persuade the player to sign for a financial package which suited the club, then paid the agent according to how close he came. The player, signed up to be represented exclusively by his agent, did not know that the agent had come to such an arrangement privately with the club.

Newcastle took the view that having conducted deals in that way, the agents were acting for both the club and the player, even though this was a breach of the Fifa rule. However, to avoid the FA being alerted to this breach, Newcastle and the agents made false declarations on the official forms to the FA, claiming that the agents had acted solely for the club, and not for the player.

The club are adamant they intend to appeal the tribunal's decision that the agents in law acted solely for the players and that Newcastle's £550,000 VAT payments cannot be reclaimed.

The FA is responsible for upholding football's regulations, yet the governing body is still reluctant to comment because Newcastle are planning to appeal. This despite the fact that Newcastle freely offered the evidence that they routinely broke the Fifa rule and made false statements to the FA itself.

An FA spokesman said: "We will wait until the matter is concluded before looking into any possible breach of the rules."

From the disciplinary section of the FA this week came headline news that a referee, Darren Deadman, has been suspended following a disagreement about how many substitutes could be named in a July pre-season friendly between Luton Town and St Albans.

It is reassuring to know that the FA is keeping on top of the issues which really matter.