Arsenal say sorry over approach to youth player

Arsenal have issued a written apology after one of the club's scouts was alleged to have pressed a 15-year-old Dutch boy to switch agents and join a British firm.

Two other Arsenal schoolboy footballers are understood to have been told last month that they ought to sign for the same agency, one of the biggest in Britain.

The revelations come amid growing concern at Europe's governing body, UEFA, and among several European clubs at the way in which England's leading Premier League clubs are recruiting young boys around the world.

Arsenal's acclaimed youth academy is likely to come under further scrutiny in coming weeks, a problem manager Arsene Wenger could do without as he battles for trophies on four fronts. Wenger is not the subject of any complaints.

Arsenal director Richard Carr has written to Dutch agents Sport Promotion to apologise on behalf of the club's European youth team scout, Bobby Arber, after the agency claimed Arber tried to persuade Arsenal player Nacer Barazite to work with an English agent.

Sport Promotion allege that during a meeting at the Oud London Hotel in Zeist, Holland, on January 8, 2006, Arber claimed he could secure a job in England for Barazite's father, a request the family made of Arsenal.

Arber is said to have introduced a rival agent to Barazite's parents at the meeting and told them that the player had to switch agents in order to secure the job for his father.

An Arsenal spokesperson said: 'Our youth development department have a very good reputation and deal amicably with clubs and agents across Europe. It is correct that there was a misunderstanding with a player's representative in early 2006. We apologised at the time and the matter was resolved to both parties' satisfaction.'

Arber works for Liam Brady's youth team department at Arsenal, which has been praised around the world for its development of young players, and Arber himself was recently lauded in the Arsenal programme as being instrumental in attracting players to the club.

But clubs, agents and at least one major football federation are known to be dismayed at the aggressive tactics used by some of Arsenal's youth team staff to attract youngsters to the club.

Midfielder Barazite, now 17, made his Arsenal debut this season in the Carling Cup.