Police to question Man United over Bébé transfer

LONDON – Police in Portugal are planning to question Manchester United about the club’s €9m (£7.2m) signing of striker Bébé from the Portuguese club Vitória Guimarães, as part of their criminal investigation into the deal.The judicial police national unit for combating corruption, part of the Justice Ministry based in Lisbon, is investigating the 11 August 2010 transfer, by which United paid that fee for a player whose only competitive experience was a single season in the Portuguese third division.Bébé’s agent, appointed days before he moved to United, was Jorge Mendes, also agent to Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Anderson, who moved from Portuguese clubs to Old Trafford in previous seasons. Of the €9m United paid to Vitória for Bébé, Mendes was paid 40%, €3.6m (£2.89m). It was reported in Vitória’s subsequent general meeting that Mendes’s €3.6m comprised a 10% agent’s commission, €900,000, and the further €2.7m because Mendes had also just acquired 30% of Bébé’s “economic rights”, part-ownership of the player.Sir Alex Ferguson said at the time that Bébé was the only player he had signed in his long managerial career without having watched him at all first, even on video. United said Bébé had been recommended by Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Portugal national team, formerly Ferguson’s assistant at Old Trafford.On 10 April, the police anti-corruption unit in Lisbon wrote to Bébé’s former agent, Gonçalo Reis, asking him to attend at their headquarters and as a witness to provide his account of what happened in the deal. The letter informed Reis that a processo-crime - literally, criminal proceedings - “relate to the transfer of the professional football player Tiago Manuel Dias Correia (known as ‘Bébé’) from Vit. Guimarães to Manchester United (England).”Reis has complained formally to the Portuguese Football Federation that Mendes improperly poached Bébé from him before very quickly sealing the United move, in breach of Fifa’s regulations governing the conduct of agents.A spokesman for United said: “Clearly if the police ask us for information, we will co-operate with them. Nobody is suggesting that we have done anything wrong.”Mendes and his agency Gestifute did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the police investigation. They have previously denied poaching Bébé from Reis. In his complaint to the PFF, Reis claims he had an exclusive contract to represent Bébé as the player’s agent for two years from 25 August 2009.

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Police to question Man United over Bébé transfer