Liverpool 'paid Man City £1m spy settlement' for hacking into City's system

Liverpool paid a £1 million settlement to Manchester City after their Premier League rivals made a complaint that their scouting system had been hacked into.

The confidential settlement took place in September 2013 after it was reported that City had employed computer-espionage experts to see if the system had been spied on.

The settlement came a year after three former City scouts moved to Liverpool. Two of them, as well as Michael Edwards who is now Liverpool’s sporting director, were alleged by City to have been involved in accessing their database on the Scout7 system on hundreds of occasions.

The two scouts alleged to have been involved in accessing City’s Scout7 system were Dave Fallows, now Liverpool’s head of recruitment, and Julian Ward, who was Liverpool’s European scouting manager for Spain and Portugal and is now the loan pathways and football partnerships manager.

The £1 million settlement was made without Liverpool or the accused individuals accepting any liability or wrongdoing. The allegations and the information on which they were based were never tested in court.

City declined to comment when contacted by The Times. Liverpool said it was unable to respond in the time available and would not comment on confidential club matters.

It was suggested that City had even speeded up the deals to sign Fernandinho, the Brazil midfielder, from Shakhtar Donetsk and Jesús Navas, the Spain winger, from Seville after discovering the possible breach of security in the system.