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The agent at the centre of inquiries into allegations of corruption in football has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to clear his name. Willie McKay became the focus of attention after it emerged that he had been involved in transfer deals between the three clubs – Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Rangers – whose offices were raided by City of London Police on Monday.
“It’s not me,” McKay, 47, said yesterday. “I have no idea what they are doing. All I can do is carry on doing my job of selling players. I think you will probably find that when it all comes out, it will be nothing. I was in Newcastle yesterday with Charles N’Zogbia [the midfield player]. I don’t know whose homes police went to, but it wasn’t mine.”
McKay represented Jean Alain Boumsong in his £8 million transfer from Rangers to Newcastle and Amdy Faye in his £2 million move from Portsmouth to St James’ Park, both in January 2005. The transfers were two of the 17 that were not cleared last month by the inquiry into alleged irregular payments from transfers, conducted by Quest and headed by Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington. The inquiry found no evidence of irregular payments to club officials or players.
“I have been involved in many, many transfers,” McKay said. “The FA have got all the paperwork. Go there and see if they have any problems with the paperwork.”
An FA spokesman declined to comment on McKay’s claim yesterday. “There are no simple answers in this case,” he said.
Eyebrows were raised when Newcastle, who were managed at the time by Graeme Souness, agreed to pay £8 million for Boumsong only six months after he had joined Rangers on a free transfer from Auxerre. Souness, who has been cleared of any wrongdoing by Stevens’s inquiry, expected the France centre back to be in the class of Rio Ferdinand or John Terry, the England defenders, but Boumsong was held in low regard by Newcastle supporters and he endured a nightmare 18-month spell on Tyneside before he was sold to Juventus for £3.3 million.
“Jean Alain Boumsong played for France,” McKay said. “How many members of the France squad can you buy for less than £10 million? Ask Martin O’Neill what a good player he is. He tried to sign him. Ask Gérard Houllier, who wanted to buy him when he was at Liverpool. Ask Inter Milan, ask Barcelona. I rest my case.”
McKay has denied that his home in the North East was one of two houses raided by police on Monday and the family of Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, have insisted that they are not involved in the investigation. “Photographers have been circling Freddy’s house, but he has nothing to do with what has happened,” a family spokesman said. “Nobody knows anything about what is alleged to have gone on. Everyone at Newcastle would love to find out, so action could be taken by the club, if necessary.”
While City of London Police officers sifted through the evidence that they had gathered, the chairman of a Football League club contacted by The Times suggested yesterday that the police investigation centred on allegations of VAT fraud and money-laundering. “I don’t think this is just about bungs,” he said.
A spokesman for Quest, an independent company that specialises in security investigations, refused to confirm whether McKay had complied with the request made by Stevens last month to provide more information about the transfers of Boumsong and Faye. “Investigations are ongoing and there is a lot of work still to do,” the spokesman said.
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