MANCHESTER United have called for greater clarity in the appointment and payment of football agents.

Though finance director Nick Humby's review into the internal transfer structures at the Old Trafford club, instigated as a result of the 99 corporate governance questions posed by major shareholders John Magnier and JP McManus at the beginning of the year, concluded the club had operated in line with current rules, he did find significant weaknesses in the regulations.

His chief concern is the growing practice of agents making payments to unauthorised third parties once deals have been concluded.

At present, the responsibility of individual clubs ends once an agent has received a fee, which is lodged, usually without public disclosure, with either the Football Association or the Premier League.

However, Humby has already unearthed instances of those payments being dispersed without United being informed, leading to a significantly increased risk of a conflict of interest between the buying and selling clubs, the player or all three.

Exposed

The procedure was exposed by Humby in the deals that took Kleberson and Tim Howard to Old Trafford last summer, transfers that are still the subject of on-going FA investigations.

Although United have confirmed they paid '700,000 to Gaetano Marotta for his role in the '2.3million signing of Howard from Major League Soccer in July, it has now been established Marotta passed on some of the cash to a third party.

Humby has been unable to establish who or how much, although he is satisfied no-one employed by United received any of the cash.

"However," he added, "in future, to ensure we protect the club from such allegations, we will ask for a declaration from the agent that they have no direct or indirect relationship with anyone at the club."

Humby has also been unable to work out why Kleberson's former club Paranaese were sent a letter saying Ian Hetherington had been authorised to act on United's behalf in negotiations which saw the Brazilian move to Old Trafford when the club had actually appointed Hetherington's associate Jorge Gama, who, unlike his colleague, at the time held a FIFA licence.

Investigation

The letter has been passed onto the FA, whose own investigation into both transfers is continuing.

United will also talk to the governing body about their findings before new supplementary agents regulations are introduced next season.

In releasing the review's findings three days ahead of schedule, the club also managed to get in an early response to more damaging allegations being fired at Sir Alex Ferguson's son Jason in the documentary 'Fergie and Son' to be screened on BBC3 tomorrow night.

Among the fresh claims made against Ferguson, a director of Elite who have a staggering 13 current members of the United squad on their books, are that he:

- worked for a company that was paid '50,000 for its role in Massimo Taibi's move to Reggina, even though the Italian club claim to have never heard of him

- broke FIFA rules by 'providing services' to Lazio over the transfer of Jaap Stam three years ago despite not being a registered agent

- professionally benefited substantially from being the United manager's son by being given open access to the club's plush Carrington training complex

United have rejected any suggestion of 'untoward issues' between the club and Elite and have also 'received assurances' that Monaco-based agent Mike Morris, who has acted independently for United but whose close business relationship to Jason Ferguson has been openly questioned, 'is not involved in either the management or ownership of Elite'.

Potential conflict of interest

However, they do accept potential for conflict of interest, hence the reason why they have unilaterally decided to sever ties with Elite and also publicly disclose fees paid to the company in contract negotiations with an existing player or the selling club.

"While we are satisfied there are no untoward issues between Elite and the club, the board recognises the external concerns over the connection between Elite and Sir Alex Ferguson," explained Humby in his review.

"In future Manchester United will not employ Elite Sports to act for the club and, to the extent Elite acts for a player or another club in negotiation with us, we will publish full details of its role in any such transaction."

Although United have now distanced them from Elite, with so many players on their books - including Danny Pugh, who is due to sign for Leeds today - there is still plenty of scope for business.

To date, United have paid Elite '237,000 in fees for contract negotiations, plus a further '300,000 on the one occasion the club employed them to act on the club's behalf in the move that saw goalkeeper Roy Carroll arrive from Wigan in 2001.

Those payments are included in an astounding total of '14million that was handed over to agents in a three-year period from January 2001, the point from which Humby started his review.

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