Source: SKY_Sports
Quinn calls for common sense
Niall Quinn is hoping the recent tapping up debate will not tarnish the name of respectable clubs.
The Sunderland chairman has been forced to watch on from afar as some of the Premier League's biggest names have seen their respectability called into question.
Chelsea were the first to get caught up in the tapping-up scandal, with Fifa banning them from making transfers until January 2011.
Manchester United and Manchester City have since seen their acquisition of young talent fall under the microscope and the issue looks set to run and run.
Uefa president Michel Platini has now joined the debate, offering a damning verdict on the actions of certain clubs.
Quinn hopes English teams as a whole are not deemed to have breached transfer regulations at one time or another, as he insists Sunderland continue to do their utmost to work by the book.
"I would hope that he (Platini) doesn't consider the Premier League as one group," the Black Cats supremo told Sky Sports News.
Foundations"We are ring-fenced as a group but there are other clubs who are trying to do things properly. For every problem he has with the big clubs in the Premier League tapping up he should come along and look at our foundations and see what we do for football.
"It's not all about tapping players up, it's not all about the money that always seems to be in the headlines.
"There are some great things that go on at football clubs, not just ours, and I think he is welcome to come along to Sunderland anytime and see what a proper football club is like, what it means to the community, as opposed to looking at it from over there and thinking it's all about tapping players up."
Quinn does, however, agree that Uefa need to take action in order to prevent situations like this from arising again in the future.
"In senior, regular, transfers you are not allowed to tap a player up but you are allowed to speak to his agent. What's the difference?" he added.
"That's where the grey area is. You have a middle man which means a person isn't being tapped up, but the reality is he has one conversation with the player and that's effectively the same as going straight to the player.
"That's the problem, but I don't know how you solve it."
