Wigan chief admits false transfer plan

Jack Robinson, chairman of Wigan rugby league club, yesterday confirmed that he had proposed setting up a fictitious transfer deal in a scheme to win damages from a local newspaper in a libel action.

He told Bolton Crown Court that in a telephone conversation with Alfred Davies, chief executive of Leeds rugby league club, he had proposed that Leeds should supply him with letters purporting to show that it had withdrawn an offer to buy Neil Cowie, the international forward, after an unfavourable article in the local Wigan Observer newspaper.

The letters would be used in an action for damages against the newspaper, the proceeds of which he offered to share between the two clubs, even though transfer negotiations had never taken place.

Mr Robinson, 55, of Wigan has denied attempting to pervert the course of justice. He told the court he was acting on behalf of another director, John Martin, when he put the fake transfer proposal to Mr Davies, and he was always confident that Mr Davies would reject the proposal - which he did.

Mr Robinson told the jury that in February last year Wigan rugby league team had been surprisingly beaten by Salford in a Challenge Cup match. He gave an interview to the Wigan Observer sports editor, Neil Barker, in which he criticised the fact players had been allowed to take a week's holiday in Tenerife immediately prior to the game.

This was followed by a report of Wigan players being involved in a "drunken binge" in the Tenerife hotel. The report mistakenly stated that one player involved was Neil Cowie. In fact, Cowie, son-in-law of John Martin, the Wigan director, was skiing in Scotland at that time.

Mr Robinson said Mr Martin had initiated a libel action against the newspaper without Cowie's knowledge, the player being on tour in Fiji.

In a letter to the newspaper, Mr Martin's solicitors claimed that Leeds had pulled out of a pounds 150,000 transfer deal for Cowie as a result of the "binge" report.

Mr Robinson said Mr Martin had asked him to approach Mr Davies to provide material to support the fake transfer claim and he had agreed to do so though he was confident Mr Davies would reject the proposal.

He said he had agreed to make the approach because he was keen to retain Mr Martin's financial support of the club at that time.

Since then, there had been a boardroom split over the future of the Wigan ground, Central Park, and Mr Martin is no longer a director, he said.

The case continues.