‘Man City could have turned blind eye’ – new scandal emerges
Manchester City and Manchester United could soon be caught up in a legal battle after age-fraud allegations have emerged.
The Manchester giants have signed numerous young stars from overseas in recent years, with several Premier League sides taking a similar approach.
The Telegraph reported on 19 March Man City and Man United are facing questions over a potential age-fraud scandal involving some of their foreign-born academy players.
The newspaper said evidence has emerged casting doubt on the ages of six footballers who have moved to the UK in the past several years, with three of them representing England at youth level.
It has obtained photographs that are alleged to indicate each of the six had played in much older age groups in their home countries than the age they are purported to be at the time.
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – revealed Man City and Man United could have “turned a blind eye” after signing the players.
FIFA’s regulations prevent teams from signing overseas players under 18 unless their parents or legal guardians have relocated for non-footballing reasons.
Man City and Man United offered tempting signings
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness revealed “nefarious agents” are trying to ship players over to the Premier League.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “You have got to remember that the prize of a Premier League contract or anything close to that is a huge incentive and, therefore, does lead to fraud in terms of paperwork and passports and those sort of things and birth certificates.
“It’s not surprising those sort of things happen. We have seen nefarious agents getting involved in this sort of thing as well and trying to ship kids over.
“I would say the clubs aren’t complicit, but they certainly might just turn a blind eye to a degree when they see a great athletic specimen come through their door, so it’s very tempting to do that.
“We have to wait and see, but certainly the pressure is on clubs to find those talented gems that they can try and uncover, so it is often tempting to push the boundaries and push the envelope a little bit.
“I think if we did move to pure biometric and medical testing in terms of age testing, that might be the right thing to do right now. Then there could be no doubt going forward, and I think that’s where the game has got to go.
“We already do it in terms of drugs and enhanced performance, so I don’t see why age should be any different.
“We should be having as clean a game as possible, so I would certainly advocate that we do move to that medical age testing as soon as we possibly can.”
Man City and Man United race to sign Adam Wharton
Former Old Trafford chief scout Mick Brown told Football Insider Man United and Man City are racing to sign Adam Wharton, while Liverpool and Real Madrid are also among the sides linked with the 21-year-old.
However, Crystal Palace are not under pressure to sell Wharton in the summer transfer window.
| Appearances (Starts) | 17 (12) |
| Minutes Played | 981 |
| Goals | 0 |
| Assists | 1 |
| Yellow Cards | 1 |
The midfielder has impressed for Palace since making the move from Blackburn Rovers in a £22million deal in the 2024 January transfer window.
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