Parry 'Aving a Laff?

Thursday, 25 June 09, 05:20 AM · Comments(3)

by Joe Walton

I know it's silly season and everything, but the news this morning that Rick Parry's new job will be ensuring the integrity of the Premier League is something else. Parry, who was ousted from his role at Liverpool for undermining the club's lawful owners, will chair a new "anti corruption" panel which aims to asses the threat of betting-related corruption. While the inception of this panel is a good thing, given that some experts worry gambling corruption poses a bigger threat to football than drugs, Parry's position as the chair makes the whole thing rather less impressive. Lest we forget that Rick Parry has conducted himself as the Peter Mandelson of football, the shadowy fixer for the red team.

In one Machiavellian move, Parry used the birth of Yossi Benayoun's child to get him to renege on his contract at West Ham. The West Ham website had reported that Benayoun had agreed a contract extension and would sign as soon as he returned from Israel where he was present at his child's birth. This is when Parry swooped, approaching Benayoun's representatives, offering him a contract, turning his head and getting him to go against his word. Is that integrity? During the much discussed arbitration hearing between West Ham, Sheffield United and the Premier League, Parry gave evidence against the East End club.

Even putting aside the ethics of trying to penalise a Premier League club despite his own club having nothing to do with the situation, Parry's behaviour is questionable. As we all know, the reason West Ham were fined was because of third-party influence. This influence was as a result of clauses in the Argentine's contracts which meant they would be sold in January should bids of certain amounts be made. The sort of bid made by Liverpool and Parry for Javier Mascherano.

So Parry complained about the contracts but then profited out of them. Is that integrity?

This smacks of jobs for the boys, giving high power jobs just on the virtue of them being 'football people'. While I'm not questioning Parry's knowledge, I am questioning whether he is the sort of person to make a charge for the Premier League's integrity

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