Mackay’s £10m court battle
MALKY MACKAY, the former Cardiff City manager, is at the centre of a £10million claim for damages with the High Court today determining if the case is to be heard at a private tribunal or in open court. The club are pursuing a claim of dishonest conspiracy over two transfers against Mackay, former director of football Iain Moody and agents David Manasseh, Rob Segal and John Inglis. Cardiff want the case heard in the High Court but lawyers for the agents are pushing for a behindclosed-doors Football Association tribunal to avoid public scrutiny. The club claim all five men conspired to defraud the club in Steven Caulker’s £8.5m move from Tottenham in July 2013 and Peter Odemwingie’s £2.5m switch from West Bromwich Albion two months later and hold Mackay and Moody responsible as two principal officers of the club overseeing transfer business.
CARDIFF CITY are pursuing a High Court claim for almost £10million in damages against Malky Mackay, Iain Moody and three of the most powerful agents in the game.
The Welsh club have launched a claim of dishonest conspiracy with regard to two transfers against Mackay ( below), their former director of football Moody and agents David Manasseh, Rob Segal and John Inglis.
The move comes with Mackay expected to be unveiled as the Scottish Football Association’s technical director today.
Cardiff are due in the High Court today in a bid to have the case heard in the public arena after lawyers representing the agents pushed for a behind-closed-doors FA tribunal which would avoid public scrutiny.
The situation highlights one of the most contentious issues in the English game, whereby agents and other members of the football community can use private arbitration for disputes without incurring any public reputational damage. This newspaper knows of at least one top agent whose clients are unaware he was forced to pay significant damages to another player.
Mackay, Moody and the agents involved in this case have consistently denied any wrongdoing since Sportsmail revealed Cardiff were investigating eight transfers from 2013, when Mackay was their manager and Moody was in charge of player recruitment. The investigation, which has so far cost Cardiff owner Vincent Tan more than £1m and has been led by a team of lawyers from Mishcon De Reya for almost three years, is ongoing but today’s hearing will focus on Steven Caulker’s £8.5m transfer from Tottenham to Cardiff in July 2013 and Peter Odemwingie’s £2.5m move from West Brom to the Welsh club two months later.
In the Odemwingie deal, Segal was the player’s agent with Manasseh on official documents as the club’s agent, with a fee of almost £ 300,000 due to Manasseh, who is perhaps most famous for negotiating Gareth Bale’s record- breaking £ 85m transfer to Real Madrid.
But Cardiff claim they are unable to find any evidence of Manasseh’s involvement in the deal, other than the fact he appeared on the AG1 Agent Declaration form submitted by Segal. The club’s concern was heightened by the fact Manasseh was in Spain overseeing Bale’s move to Real Madrid on the day the Odemwingie transfer was completed.
Manasseh, who declined to comment last night, was named as the player’s agent in the Caulker deal, and was also named in documents with Inglis as the club’s agents.
Inglis, a Scottish former footballer now operating as an agent in Bulgaria, was to receive more than £700,000 for his involvement but, again, the club can find no evidence of him working on the deal. Cardiff claim all five men conspired together to defraud the club in both transfers, and hold Mackay and Moody responsible as two principal officers of the club overseeing transfer business.
After leaving Cardiff, Mackay and Moody almost rejoined forces at Crystal Palace in 2014, but Sportsmail revealed an exchange of racist, sexist and homophobic messages that forced Moody to resign and persuaded Palace not to appoint Mackay.
Moody is now working at League Two strugglers Colchester United, while Mackay is hoping to return to the game with the SFA in what will be his first job in football since his controversial appointment, and disastrous spell, at Wigan Athletic in 2014-15.