COURT CASE - Toon taken to court by player agent

By Matthew Jones
March 10 2003

Newcastle United are facing up to a £100,000 claim by a player agent. The news came after the agent, Barry Silkmen announced he was going to take the club to court over the money he was promised for bringing Clarence Acuna to their attention in 2000.

Newcastle United player-agent, Barry Silkmen is planning on taking The Magpies to court over £100,000.

Silkmen claims that he was promised this large sum of money afterhe was asked to find a midfielder for The Toon Army back in 2000. The player he found happened to be Clarence Acuna from Chile. Looks like Sir Bobby and Freddy shepherd will have to pay up, although the figure seems to increase all of the time. Barry is seeking the initial £100,000 plus interest and VAT, making his total claim worth somewhere around the £130,000 mark.

"They've refused to pay the fee on the grounds that originally I wasn't involved in the deal," he said, "even though I've got pages of faxes sent to me by the Newcastle chairman, Freddy Shepherd.

"When Magpies' boss, Sir Bobby Robson was asked about me in a Sky TV interview his words were: 'I don't need agents to tell me about world-class players'. I've got that on tape. If this guy was such a world-class player, why did they ask me to bring him on trial because they'd never heard of him?"