BWFC wins Court Case

[malcd1]

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/114 ... all_agent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dragged on a bit but:

BOLTON Wanderers and chairman Phil Gartside have been successful in fighting a legal battle with a football agent.

A civil judge has dismissed the action brought against Wanderers and The Sport and Entertainment Media Group (SEM).

Tony McGill had accused the club and SEM of conspiring together to cut him out of the 2007 transfer of midfielder Gavin McCann from Aston Villa to Wanderers.

Judge David Waksman said: "None of the claims brought by the claimant Mr McGill succeed and accordingly this action must be dismissed."

The verdict is being returned at Manchester Civil Justice Centre this morning.

[bobo the clown]

Good. Maybe this has been deflecting Phil G from his day job.


... & anything which suggests an agent is a lying tit has my approval. Whether he is or not.

[coffeymagic]

I like Judge Rinder best.

[a1]

so this was liable then ? -

this

*cough*

[LeverEnd]

Ok, time to concentrate on the search for a new manager.

A1, eh?

[Andy Waller]

I like Judge Rinder best.

What do you call a judge without any fingers?

Justice Thumbs.

[a1]

Ok, time to concentrate on the search for a new manager.

A1, eh?

yeah, the URL no longer works, thats me point...

but for the internet anti-deletionists , its the raw text and not a Word doc, so the boldened headlines and sub-headlines and photos don't show up, i couldnt figure out how to preserve the format of the 'newspaper' style (probably shitty clipboard.exe's fault), but you get the jist..

--------------------------------------------------

The famous Manny Road blog
Bolton Wanderers news and views you won't read in the papers…

Phil Gartside: “A Cheat, a Liar and a Fraudster”
Wednesday November 9th, 2011

Gavin McCann. Not a name to make you sit up and take notice, although he was a solid enough performer for the most part. Yet if allegations surrounding his signing prove to be true, the midfielder may emerge as a highly significant figure in the history of Bolton Wanderers.

Jerome Anderson. Head of SEM

The decision to sign McCann was taken by Sam Allardyce, and the deal was brokered by Tony McGill, a football agent of eleven years standing, who was more recently involved in the transaction that took James Milner from Aston Villa to Manchester City and Stephen Ireland in the opposite direction.

McGill had meetings with then first team coach Ricky Sbragia and scouts Dave Worthington and Jack Chapman, all of whom were in agreement that the signing was a suitable one. After Allardyce left, it was decided to press ahead, with new general manager Frank McParland handling the detail. In all, the process took over six months.

So far, so ordinary, but then McGill describes what appears to be a strange turn of events, in which Bolton chairman Phil Gartside took a central role.

“The night before the deal I got a call off Gavin McCann to say there’s another agent doing the deal. The night before, I couldn’t believe it,” he says.

“Gartside said to my solicitor that he did the deal himself, there was no other agent involved. I went to court, to get all the legal documents because Bolton wouldn’t give us any information.

“I then went to court and got disclosure, then discovered that Gartside had employed another agency to work on behalf of Bolton to do what, nobody knows. He paid them £300,000. For nothing. For doing absolutely no work at all. ”

According to McGill, his protests led to further questionable behaviour.

“When I complained, somebody altered the contract date to backdate it a week, to show that they’d done some work. We’ve got a photocopy of the document, where the date’s been changed to backdate it, because contracts have to be lodged before the event and this wasn’t.

“And, the agency concerned used an unlicensed agent to do the deal – Dave Sheron. He went to Bolton, the day he signed to do the deal. There was nothing to do.”

Owen Coyle. Jerome Anderson's client.

The agency was SEM – Sport, Entertainment and Media Group. SEM is headed by Jerome Anderson, who was associated with Manchester City during Thaksin Shinawatra’s ownership of that club and with the Venky’s takeover at Blackburn Rovers. He’s also Owen Coyle’s agent.

On a deal like the one with McCann, the commission would normally be in the region of 5%. Yet the sum of £300,000 paid to SEM represents 30% of a £1 million transfer fee.

Legal action followed. McGill sued McCann for breach of contract, with the player settling out of court in November 2009. He has an ongoing claim against SEM.

However his complaint to the FA, where Gartside is a board member, was not acted upon. “The FA looked at this transfer deal, found that there was serious wrong doing, passed it over to their legal department and it’s been squashed,” he explains.

McGill asserts that the FA’s legal team didn’t even reply to his query, which is at odds with Gartside’s statement on Twitter last week - “…one side of a story and old news been investigated by authorities. Club and officers cleared of any wrong doing.” It’s doubtful that the agent would agree with that assessment.

“I’ve written to Phil Gartside on several occasions and texted him and I’ve called him a cheat, a liar and a fraudster,” he declares.

Gavin McCann. Formerly Tony McGill's client.

“I’ve got evidence of him changing the contracts going to the FA. We’ve physically proved that it was impossible for that date on the contract to be valid because nobody was there on that day.

“I’ve written to the sports minister Hugh Robertson, and he’s written back or e-mailed me back to say that he has given the FA until February 29th to completely reshuffle the place and to clean their act up, especially the compliance unit or he’s going to legislate against them.”

Until then, Manny Road has a few questions for Phil Gartside. We’ll be more than happy to publish his side of the story.

What services did SEM provide that caused you to pay them £300,000?

Why was a commission of 30% paid, when the going rate is 5%?

Has Bolton been involved in any other deals where the agent was changed at the last minute?

Why was the date on the McCann contract changed? Who changed it?

As a member of the FA board, how will you, and they, ensure impartiality in any enquiry?

From him leaving the club in 1995, until rejoining as Bolton manager, you spoke to Owen Coyle just once. What was it that led you to recommend him to Burnley as their manager?

Next up: The man who is said to be really running Bolton Wanderers.

- Richard McCormick

http://twitter.com/@RMc2407" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

--------------------------------------------

yeah.

[bobo the clown]

So .... libel action to follow.

[officer_dibble]

Mannyroad = les the postman? Did bwfc run over his dog?

[Tombwfc]

Victorious or not, I don't think this is Big Phil's finest hour...

But the judge also said he agreed with many of the facts outlined by Mr McGill and told Manchester Civil Justice Centre that evidence given by Whites chairman Phil Gartside was “unsatisfactory”.

He added that the result of the case was “unfortunate”.

Mr McGill is now appealing against the decision.

Judge Waksman said Mr Gartside appeared “visibly uncomfortable” while giving evidence on whether a transfer document relating to the deal was backdated.

Mr Gartside originally claimed to have signed the document on June 1, but then admitted signing it on June 8.

He said his change of position came about after subsequently seeing the signed and dated agreement.

Judge Waksman said: “I consider that Mr Gartside only accepted that he signed the document on June 8 when the other evidence rendered such a concession inevitable.”

Mr Gartside said he approved the appointment of SEM and agreed the £1 million transfer fee for the player with the then-Aston Villa chief executive Richard Fitzgerald.

But in a letter written by solicitors on his behalf in 2009, he said “he had no personal involvement in the transfer of Mr McCann to Bolton”.

[boltonboris]

Doesn't look good does it. But we all know what he's like.

[Hoboh]

Doesn't look good does it. But we all know what he's like.

Everyone except a certain Mr E Davies that is.

[boltonboris]

I think even he does

[a1]

Doesn't look good does it. But we all know what he's like.

oh no ! , we're innocent .

someone on WW says this mcgill dick owes us £100K

[CAPSLOCK]

Mannyroad = les the postman? Did bwfc run over his dog?

[chester white]

Seems Peter Harrison's mate would like the last word...

http://mannyroad.com/bolton-wanderers-c ... ow-please/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

[a1]

stephen harrison the guy at dead dead good records / charlatans uk band related is *now* a sport agent.

i have to remember its not related in any way, but this is apt



and there's this album , which is nearly a bullseye of a title

according to wiki, pete harrison used to manage blyth spartans (bet it were like the dark days of coyle, but with a real drunk).

:/