McClaren denies FA pressure to break ties with Gordon

Steve McClaren has denied that the Football Association wants him to sever links with Colin Gordon in response to the agent's comments that football is rife with corruption.

Gordon claimed that millions of pounds were being siphoned out of the sport, describing the English game as the "dirty man of Europe" and agents as "scum of the earth". The Middlesbrough chairman, Steve Gibson, hit back by accusing him of trying to get McClaren the Leeds job when he was at the Riverside in 2002, while there were reports yesterday that in the same year Gordon attempted to hijack Boro's mooted purchase of Muzzy Izzet from Leicester City and Juninho's return to Teesside from Atletico Madrid.

Reports have emerged stating that McClaren is reconsidering his partnership with Gordon in light of the allegations, but the England manager said that it was a "private matter" and, on the eve of Lord Stevens' presentation to Premier League chairmen on the findings of his investigation into football corruption, that the FA had not intervened.

"Colin has made his comments and they are his personal views," McClaren said. "By no means do they represent what I believe or my opinions.

"Nobody has come to me from the FA and put forward a situation where Colin might not be my agent. At the present moment Colin is my agent."