ACUNA IN AGENT MISERY
FOOTBALL agent Barry Silkman has filed a writ against Newcastle United over the alleged non-payment of fees involved in Clarence Acuna's transfer from Universidad de Chile and also claimed that the player will have to pay his former agent Ronen Katzav the equivalent of four years' wages due to the unsual contract the Chilean signed with him.
Like many South American transfers, the deal involving Acuna was very complicated. Katzav claimed he was the player's agent but there was also talk that he was only the player's official Fifa representative in England.
As a result of the transfer, Silkman believes that for the foreseeable future a large percentage of the player's pay packet will go towards paying the agent.
Silkman explained how the transfer came about. He said: "Ronen Katzav sent me a video over of two matches which Acuna was playing in, he looked a very good player and he was representing the player and the club in Chile.
"Katzav was Acuna's agent throughout the world and he has a signed contract with him. He's now suing Acuna for a lot of money.
"I've seen the contract between them and I would say Acuna will be playing football for four years to pay Katzav.
"I don't think he's (Acuna) got a leg to stand on, the whole thing was done in Israel, it all comes under Israeli law. I've seen the contract and I would say Acuna will play football for the next four years for no money."
Newcastle started dealing directly with Acuna and his club Universidad de Chile over the £1 million transfer, and this angered both Katsav and Silkman who claim they were responsible for bringing the player over to England.
Silkman said: "There is only one side of the story, the facts.
"The facts are that Newcastle asked me to find players for them, one of them was Cordone, another one was a player called Baier who came over on trial and they wanted him, but because they hadn't sold Solano they couldn't buy him.
"The other one was Acuna who I paid for out of my own pocket because no one at Newcastle had heard of him.
"So I paid all his expenses and he came over and after two or three days they said they wanted to do a deal.
"They knew from the beginning what I wanted, my fee for doing it, which I told them would be £100,000 if they took the player, but after two or three weeks they started to negotiate directly with the club and player.
"After speaking to (Freddy) Shepherd (Newcastle chairman) I followed it up with a letter, one went to Shepherd and one went to Russell Cushing (company secretary) which outlined where it had got to at that point because basically I didn't believe them and don't trust them."
Silkman remains upset by this incident and will be calling three employees of Newcastle in his defence.
Silkman continued: "They refused to pay, indeed they don't even want to pay the expenses I laid out, so I'm suing them for £100,000 and my witnesses will be Bobby Robson, Gordon Milne and Mick Wadsworth.
"I think the problem that Newcastle have got is that they are a public company but Freddy Shepherd runs it like it's his company.
"So when we go to court and everything comes out then we'll see. They've got a player for £1 million who's worth a lot more now.
"As soon as the player proves he's good enough I'm entitled to earn my money, I've done a good job and I want paying."
