The way FIFA did business in order to secure a top Chinese sponsor for the World Cup has been "seriously called into question by the man who claims he brokered the deal but was cut out from receiving commission in return," according to Andrew Warshaw of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. Agents may have acquired "bad press" across European football but Tony McGill has taken legal action claiming "misuse of confidential information." McGill is seeking to find out "why FIFA overlooked him" in its multi-million pound agreement with Chinese smartphone company Vivo for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. McGill claimed he was the intermediary who "brought the two parties together," having already brokered a similar deal between Vivo and Premier League clubs via marketing rights company Lagardère. FIFA was issued with a court order to appear on Monday in Newcastle, close to McGill’s hometown of Sunderland, to "explain how it conducted negotiations." However, it instructed a firm of London lawyers, Couchmans, to dispute U.K. jurisdiction and "refused to attend" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 2/12).
