Crystal Palace were offered an astonishing 'commission', thought to be around £1 million, to act as a go-between in an elaborately conceived transfer plot to get Gabriel Heinze from Manchester United to Liverpool. And now United are demanding that the Football Association investigate Liverpool's role in the affair, which is turning out to be a dramatic follow-up of the Argentine's £8m move to Real Madrid last Thursday.The plan, allegedly thought up by Heinze's representatives, called for Palace to buy the player from United then sell him on to Liverpool. It foundered when the London club refused to cooperate and, instead, made both Manchester United and the Premier League aware of the approach.
Palace chief executive Phil Alexander subsequently gave evidence about both the contact and the proposed financial incentive, made by a lawyer named Richard Green purporting to be acting on behalf of Heinze's agents, to the Premier League tribunal who decided to uphold United's stance in refusing to sell the defender to their Merseyside rivals.
'I presented evidence about the approach to the Premier League and to Manchester United. It was up to the League to interpret it as they saw fit,' said Alexander, who also insisted the contact came completely out of the blue without any possible prior inclination that Palace might be willing to co-operate in the matter.
Although Heinze's representative Roberto Rodriguez insisted he knew nothing about the approach to Palace, the two-man commission of Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards and Peter McCormack, a solicitor and former Leeds United director, threw out the South American's claims and backed Alexander's version of what happened, making it a major factor in their decision.
Now the Premier League are piecing together a dossier containing all the details about the attempt to involve Palace and will present it to the FA. 'There will obviously be an inquiry,' said a league source. Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson revealed that United would be pressing hard for a full FA investigation into whether Liverpool had any prior knowledge of the convoluted transfer scheme.
'We are certainly investigating that and I would imagine we will be going to the FA,' he insisted. Asked whether United would make an official complaint to the FA, the United manager answered: 'We are investigating Liverpool at this moment in time. That is all I can say. Absolutely, we will take it as far as it goes.'
