Rick Parry, the chief executive of Liverpool, has spared himself a frosty boardroom reception this lunchtime after citing “business commitments” as the reason for his non-appearance at the Riverside Stadium when Liverpool visit today. After a Premier League commission this week found Liverpool guilty of illegally poaching the Germany international, fining the club £20,000 and the player £10,000, Middlesbrough are to press home their fight for justice at the High Court. They launched their compensation claim in August 2000, the month that Ziege left Teesside for £5.5 million, but are now demanding another £7 million to redress the damage sustained by the club. The key to their case not only surrounds Liverpool's unconventional approach to Ziege — a practice known in football as “tapping-up” — but also the fact that they discovered and subsequently triggered a secret get-out clause in the wing back's contract. That clause, section F7 of his deal, was agreed to by Middlesbrough on humanitarian grounds when Ziege arrived at the club from AC Milan in 1999, fearful that he and his family would fail to settle in England. Liverpool's official expression of interest came at a time when Middlesbrough had received written bids of £8 million for Ziege from Chelsea and Rangers and a similar verbal offer from Valencia. Middlesbrough will insist in court that the 30-year-old's departure had a catastrophic effect in terms of league position, television revenue, gate receipts and sales of replica shirts. “The damage was incalculable,” a club source said. An attempt by Liverpool to have the High Court case dismissed for being “frivolous and without foundation” was last month dismissed by the presiding judge. Middlesbrough are now prepared, if necessary, to subpoena representatives of the Premier League, including Mike Foster, its secretary, and Peter Ridsdale, the chairman of Leeds United, to support their claims. Officials from both clubs will also be questioned. Middlesbrough's anger is directed largely towards Parry, whose role in the Ziege transfer is alleged to have been in flagrant breach of the Premier League rules that he helped to draw up — as well as those of the Chairman's Charter — while he was chief executive of the organisation. In his evidence to the commission, Ziege referred to an unauthorised meeting with Parry and Gérard Houllier, the Liverpool manager, in an airport hotel in Manchester six days before they first contacted Middlesbrough. Steve Gibson, the Middlesbrough chairman, last night expressed his astonishment that a senior figure such as Parry should dismiss the issue of illegal approaches as “something that is not unique to Liverpool”, as he did on Thursday, and launched a withering attack on the man blamed by the club for the three-point deduction, imposed by the Premier League for failing to fulfil a fixture, which ultimately led to relegation in 1997. “I read Parry's comments with disbelief,” Gibson said. “To suggest that this sort of conduct prevails in the Premier League is yet another statement which he knows not to be true. Liverpool premeditated a strategy to illegally obtain the services of Christian Ziege. They conspired to defraud our football club of the true market value of Christian. This they did by colluding with agents, authorised and unauthorised, with secret meetings in bars and hotels. “The clause in Christian's contract did exist. It existed because of his previous experiences in Italy and its objective was to protect Christian and his family's happiness. It is not always possible to find the words to convey the spirit of an agreement into a contract but both parties understood it. Gibson added: “Christian told us and the world that he was happy at Middlesbrough. He left because he had his head turned by the illegal approach of Liverpool and the promise of greater riches. “Parry and Liverpool have consistently and knowingly broken rules and consistently offered misleading statements. Houllier was quoted as saying that Middlesbrough's claims were ‘laughable'. This he said when he knew the Middlesbrough claims to be justified. Parry offered a plea of not guilty to the Premier League commission when he knew that he and Liverpool were guilty. I look forward to seeing Parry and Houllier under cross-examination, under oath, with others in the High Court.” Among the other evidence which will now be scrutinised in court, Ziege told the Premier League commission that it was Rune Hauge, the agent who was suspended by Fifa, the world game's governing body, for his role in the bungs scandal which led to George Graham's departure from Arsenal in 1995, who instigated the transfer. Perhaps the biggest irony is that Ziege will not even be playing today, having moved to Tottenham Hotspur.
It was a diplomatic end to an acrimonious few days, as the rumbling saga involving Christian Ziege's contentious transfer from Middlesbrough to Anfield two years ago again erupted into life. The reverberations will continue for some time.