The Best Guide for the NW10 Area

Israeli FA investigate Ben Haim transfer

Published: 23rd September 2006 23:08

An unlicensed agent involved in the transfers of Tal Ben Haim and Idan Tal to Bolton Wanderers is at the centre of an investigation by the Israeli Football Association. The governing body is warning its clubs not to deal with David Abu, an Israeli who divides his time between his homeland and England. "We have been after him for a very long time," said Yftach Even Ezra, a lawyer from the Israeli FA. "We have warned teams about dealing with unlicensed agents and him. Once we have enough hard evidence to bring teams to justice for this kind of behaviour we will do that."

Abu played a part in 2004 in Ben Haim's transfer from Maccabi Tel Aviv to the Reebok Stadium. He made the initial contact between Bolton and the Israel defender and helped Ben Haim with the move to England, but says he did not receive any money for his services and is threatening to sue Ben Haim. This year Abu brokered the deal between Bolton and Tal, an international colleague of Ben Haim, to the fury of Tal's previous agent, Ronen Katsav. Craig Allardyce, son of the Bolton manager Sam, also worked on that transfer.
Katsav is suing Tal for breach of contract and has criticised Craig Allardyce's involvement in deals with Bolton. Allardyce Jr this year stopped working as an agent. "It is not proper for a son to bring players to his father," Katsav said.

He added that Abu and Craig Allardyce were involved in trying to take Yossi Benayoun to Bolton last year. "When I met Craig Allardyce about bringing Benayoun to Bolton, we spent a long time discussing the part that David Abu should get from the deal," Katsav said. The transfer fell through when Benayoun decided to join West Ham. Abu was untroubled by the Israeli FA's statement. "I'm not an agent but a contact man," he said. "I'm a go- between who gets the money from the player when I find a team for a fee. They can look into the deals at Bolton and see that the agents who signed the Ben Haim transfer were Jamie Hart and Craig Allardyce. I'm not bothered by the Israeli FA or Katsav. They can't do anything because I'm not a Fifa agent."

A Bolton spokesperson said last night: "The club has made it clear that whilst it awaits the outcome of the FA inquiry into the Panorama programme, and the Stevens inquiry, the club is conducting its own investigations into the details of recent transfer deals and will not be making further comment until the club is satisfied that it has all the facts available to it and the inquiries are completed."

Neither Sam nor Craig Allardyce responded to inquiries last night.

source:

Shaul Adar
Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian

Community Comment:

Add your comment:

You will need to sign in to post a comment to this article. if you do not have an AboutMyArea account, you can join now for free.