Liverpool should ‘do the decent thing’

The father of the 13-year-old victim of the Liverpool tapping-up scandal last night urged the club to follow Manchester City’s example and “do the decent thing” by his son.

The 65-year-old spoke out almost a week after City joined Liverpool in being banned from signing academy players for making an illegal approach to two schoolboys.

In contrast to the victim in the Liverpool case, who is unable to join another academy until former club Stoke City are paid £49,000, and whose parents have been saddled with thousands of pounds of debt in school fees, the other two boys had their private education

guaranteed until the age of 16 by City, who also settled the compensation with their former clubs.

The father said: “I applaud Man City for putting their hands up and saying, ‘Look, we’ll do the decent thing’. It’s not for me to tell them [Liverpool] what to do, but common decency tells you what to do, doesn’t it?”

As chronicled by The Daily Telegraph, the Anfield club allegedly promised to pay the boy’s school fees if he defected to them from Stoke, as well as offering forbidden inducements to him and his family.

The father yesterday cited an alleged conversation with Liverpool’s head of pre-academy recruitment and player retention, Ian Barrigan.

“‘Trust me’, he says,” the father said. “‘We guarantee his education until he’s 16. We’re too big a club to go back on our word’.”

The alleged exchange took place before the Premier League blocked Liverpool paying the school fees following a rule change.

Liverpool did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.