Liverpool mayor requests 'serious investigation' into Barkley transfer
Joe Anderson, the Everton-supporting mayor of Liverpool, has written to the Football Association and Premier League to request a "serious investigation" into last week's sale of Ross Barkley to Chelsea.
Anderson is so incensed by the £15-million deal that he indicated he has asked police "to consider whether any fraud has taken place."
Related: Chelsea snaps up Ross Barkley for reported cut-price £15M fee
"It was widely reported and confirmed by Mr Farhad Moshiri, a Director of EFC - in an interview on August 31 with Sky Sports News - that a deal had been reached with Chelsea for a fee of £35 million," Anderson wrote in a letter relayed by the Liverpool Echo's Liam Thorp.
"The fee was believed by many, including myself, to be a good deal and was based on him having just a year left of his contract.
"However with less than an hour remaining on deadline day it was revealed that the deal had been rejected by Ross Barkley. At the time, it was stated by his agent that Ross had a hamstring injury and had decided to regain his fitness and then consider his options in January."
(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)
In the intervening period, Anderson says, Barkley's asking price dropped at a rate of more than £1 million per week before his move to London, despite the midfielder not playing for Everton due to his hamstring problem. The mayor believes this could be perceived as bad business by the Toffees or, alternatively, Barkley's 11th-hour decision to ditch the move was a ploy to "drive down a player's value in the transfer market so as to benefit the player, his agent and the buying club."
Anderson accepts Barkley could've left Everton for nothing in the summer if he let his contract expire, but attests that the events leading to Barkley joining Chelsea on Jan. 5 could be the result of collusion at the expense of the Merseyside outfit.
"Football fans are often treated as the forgotten minority and the Premier League would not be the fantastic product it is without them," he continued. "Those committed fans pay exceptional ticket prices to watch their team play which I believe gives them a stake in this whole process and they deserve the right to a degree of transparency."
Barkley's departure ended a 13-year association between the Scouser and Everton, and he leaves hoping to reinstall himself in the England squad ahead of the upcoming World Cup in Russia. He will squabble with N'Golo Kante, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Cesc Fabregas, and Danny Drinkwater for first-team minutes at Chelsea.