Kane favour is forgotten

16/05/14: JJ - "I did nothing wrong other than try to help Cowdenbeath."

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF FIRST LEG
Jim Jefferies did not shake hands with his opposite number Jimmy Nicholl at the end of the Championship Play Off Final first leg at Central Park on Wednesday night and the reason why was answered when he spoke exclusively to the website on Friday lunchtime. The Pars gaffer wanted to put on record his reason:-

"Jimmy has said that he is not falling out with me but let's look at the facts. It is all over the Chris Kane situation. We had an agreement; he said "I dropped him, he was on the bench, he didn't play so I do not know what the problem is". Then he said that he was under pressure from his Chairman.

"Let me take you back to the facts now. The facts are that in January, I did Cowdenbeath a huge favour and I will tell you why because Chris Kane's situation changed to being part time because he wanted to do a course to enhance his education in case football didn't work out. I will always encourage that.

"It meant Chris had to play in the 20s, train part time which reduced his chances of playing first team football. I had him training at Berwick Rangers and there was a chance that he might have gone there.

"When Blair Morgan his agent requested that he could go out on loan. He said that Jimmy Nicholl would phone me and when he called he told me that he was just in and needed some players. I offered to put him out on loan to Cowdenbeath but Jimmy said that he could not take him on loan because he had used up his quota for that age.

"He is a man I have respected, met a lot and got on great. Some managers you do not know well enough to do this and I said 'right we will do you a favour'. I did Cowdenbeath a favour and this is nothing to do with the game the other night, nothing that went on during the game this is purely to do with a situation that I helped Cowdenbeath out of in January.

"I helped them because I released Chris Kane, which I didn't want to do and I said to him (Chris) that at the end of the season, if you do well and depending upon how your studies go there might be a chance to come back here. He said 'that will be great gaffer if that was an option'.

"I said fine 'go and play every week like you want to do. I said to Jimmy that by releasing him I cannot in writing get anything to say these two conditions. The only conditions I could get away with were a percentage of any move before his contract ended to protect us a bit and the other one was I didn't want him to take part in any of the play off games if we happened to play each other.

"I got his word on that. So I went and told Blair Morgan about the deal. As far as I was concerned he was never going to be able to take part. There was an agreement but I didn't have it in writing because the SPFL won't accept things like that. You have to do it by a gentleman's agreement."

This appeared to have been forgotten when the pre match ops meeting was held on Tuesday morning.  Mr Anderson their secretary made it clear that Cowdenbeath saw nothing in place to say that Chris Kane could not play. JJ continued:-

"We had a press conference before the game at East End Park and when Jimmy came in the door I knew by his face right away. I asked to see him privately and we sat there and I asked what was all this about because I thought we had an agreement regarding Chris Kane. He said "I know we give you a percentage if .... ". "No" I said "the other one, that he doesn't take part".

Jimmy Nicholl appeared to have forgotten that so JJ warned 'if he takes part in that game, you have broken a trust there.'

"He knows that he has done wrong and if he had said to me then that he was under pressure from the chairman saying that he was their player, then I would have probably said 'okay, stick him on the bench and don't put him on if that gets you out of trouble.

"What I didn't expect was for him to say nothing. When he handed the team sheet over he looked very sheepish and I knew right away that Kane was on that. He would have put him on but he should never have been involved at all.

"He then comes out on Friday morning saying 'I dropped him to the bench'. I have got two reports on Cowdenbeath's last two games against Ayr United and he did not play. So how can you drop someone when he has not been playing? If you drop someone from the bench you put him in the stand!

"I think he has been under pressure from the Chairman that he is their player and they wanted to get an edge on the game. If they had let me know that they were breaking that trust then it might have softened the blow a little bit.

"The bottom line is that boy should not take part in the game due to a gentleman's agreement. They know it and I can prove that he wasn't dropped for our game because in the two previous games he was on the bench and got on for one of them.

Chris Kane

"I think they had a problem with one of their players and they knew that he was the replacement. He could have played if the other boy had not got through the game and he might have come on and scored the winner.

"I will offer the hand shake, if it is not accepted that is fine, it only squares things up. I was extremely unhappy about it.

"On Wednesday night and in the heat of the moment  I was pretty angry, nothing to do with game. There were never any words between the dugouts. Jimmy was very quiet, he knows where the anger and the rage comes from. That boy should never have been taking part.

"I have learned one thing - 'be very careful who you help and do favours for. I did nothing wrong other than try to help Cowdenbeath."