Liverpool found guilty of ‘tapping up’ Stoke City schoolboy

In April 2017, Liverpool Football Club were fined GBP 100,000 (approx. EUR 120,000) and banned from signing academy players from English league clubs for one year after being found guilty of ‘tapping up’ a schoolboy (the Player) from Stoke City. Should they be found guilty of a second breach before 2020, the Premier League will activate an additional one-year ban (See, Ben Rumsby “Exclusive: Liverpool facing legal action from schoolboy player after transfer ban for tapping up,” The Telegraph, 5 April 2017, ww.telegraph.co.uk).

Background

The Premier League launched an investigation in January 2017, during which Liverpool’s tapping up of the Player was exposed. That probe was one of numerous investigations the Premier League conducted into alleged breaches of its rules on the transfer of academy players.[2]

Liverpool’s pursuit of the Player

The Player, a prodigiously talented 11-year-old schoolboy, was registered with the Stoke City academy. Whilst he was there, his family alleged that the Player was pursued by Liverpool for nearly 2 years. In their pursuit of the Player, Liverpool allegedly offered the Player numerous inducements to sign with them – a practice forbidden by the Premier League.

The inducements allegedly offered by Liverpool included all-expenses-paid trips to tournaments in Paris and Denmark, £50 cash in hand every time...

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