Souness warns: I'll sue Quest over bungs slur

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Souness is the first major football figure to come out fighting over the Stevens Report, published last week following a 15-month investigation of 362 transfer deals.

The Scot is incensed that the Quest team, led by former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens, claimed there were inconsistencies in the evidence he and Kenny Shepherd, the son of Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd, gave to the investigators.

The report presented by Lord Stevens to the Premier League on Friday named four transfers involving Newcastle among the 17 deals they said they were unable to sign off because of concerns over them.

Four Newcastle deals — for Inter midfielder Emre,Rangers defender Jean Alain Boumsong, Portsmouth midfielder Amdy Faye and Deportivo La Coruna striker Albert Luque — involved fees totalling £23.3m and were all conducted when Souness was manager.

A statement issued by Souness's solicitors said he could not understand why he had been named in the Stevens report when he had acted freely as a witness to the inquiry.

It was also claimed that at no time during his talks with Quest was it suggested that there were inconsistencies in his evidence.

Now Souness is threatening to take Quest to court to lift what he believes is the slur that hangs over him and the serious damage that being named could have on his managerial prospects.

Souness, working as a TV football pundit, has not worked in management since he was sacked by Newcastle in February 2006. He was said to have turned down the Crystal Palace job for family reasons.