Fulham have made an official complaint to the Premier League about Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
The Whites believe the Merseyside club have tapped up Clint Dempsey and have referred to Rodgers revelation of his side’s approach for Dempsey during a press conference as well as the publication of Liverpool’s signing of the American international on the Fenway Sports Group website earlier this summer.
The complaint was registered last month and was discussed at the July meeting of the Premier League board, which consists of Richard Scudamore, Sir Dave Richards, Nic Coward and Mike Foster. The Premier League’s first step is to write to all parties before the board decides whether to take further action.
“The Premier League has received a complaint from Fulham FC regarding certain comments made by Liverpool FC officials and is currently looking into the matter,” the Premier League wrote in a statement to Goal.com on Thursday.
Fulham took exception to comments made by Rodgers to the media last month when he was pressed about his interest in Dempsey.
The United States international had been heavily linked to Liverpool up to that point, culminating in a website belonging to the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group publishing a story on July 18 claiming he was a Liverpool player.
The story was hastily removed but Rodgers addressed the subject at a press conference the same day.
“Clint is a player we’ve inquired about, it is as simple as that,” Rodgers said. “Ian Ayre, our managing director, has spoken with the club to see what the position is. That is where we’re at. He’s a very talented player but we don’t like to talk about other clubs’ players.”
Fulham coach Martin Jol benched Dempsey in the club’s 5-0 win over Norwich last weekend and has stated that the American won’t play in Saturday’s matchup against Manchester United.
“Mentally, Clint wants to move, he doesn’t want to stay here. His head was turned and that was the problem,” Jol said Thursday. “It’s a problem and a situation you don’t want. It’s not something you can talk to a player about every day because he doesn’t want to.
“I don’t know if he’ll remain a Fulham player. I’d love to keep him, but I’m not sure. Hopefully if he stays, then in the next couple of weeks he will change his thoughts about us.”
