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Man United's Class of '92 responds to Buckley's claim

Manchester United's Class of '92 public relations manager Di Law has revealed that there is no deal in place for kids from South Africa to be trained by the Red Devils legends, as stated by Delron Buckley earlier in the week.

The former Bafana Bafana winger, who has a football academy - the Delron Buckley Soccer School in Durban - grabbed headlines when he said that a deal had been secured with Quinton Fortune and United's Class of '92 - David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Gary and Phil Neville - to train local kids from South Africa.

In an interview with KickOff, Buckley said: "So we've joined the Manchester United Class of '92, which is Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt for two years and we've been sponsored with an amount of R5 million.

"We've been given funding from another company to take kids from South Africa to Manchester United, obviously for trials, training, and the whole package basically."

Fortune though was quick to respond, with his representative Sarah Collins telling ESPN: "There are no partnerships between QFA with any academies in South Africa currently.

"We hope to one day fulfill the dream of Quinton Fortune to have a football academy in his home country, but work to do that has not yet been started and we are not in partnership with anyone to do so."

Now, Di, the daughter of United legend Denis Law, says that nothing has yet reached her desk and that no deal has been confirmed.

"There is no tie-up with CO92. We offer soccer schools for five days with an appearance from one of them (United legends). I organise the CO92 appearances and this one has not come to me yet," Law tells Kick-Off website.

"So, there is no partnership in place [yet]. It seems to me that he (Buckley) is looking to pay to bring them over. However, it appears at this stage that it is not a venture or partnership with CO92, but rather a commercial deal."

In an attempt to clear the air and confusion Buckley's agent, Mohamed Riyaad, says that everything Buckley said was true, but the story was "twisted a little bit" and that because of the coronavirus the trip to send the kids abroad has been postponed.

"I'll tell you what happened. When we went to watch United play, opposite the stadium at Hotel Football I met Michael Clegg (United's strength and conditioning coach) and we started chatting and became good friends. He introduced me to the Class of 92," Riyaad said.

"I was the one who made the interactions with everybody including Tony Wright, the CEO of Hotel Football, and that's how we got this whole thing together.

"They are doing things for kids around the world between six and 16. They are trained by the legends where they do a whole portfolio of exactly what European football is all about, give them a one-week tour of the whole facility and they give them the whole rundown, the Man United culture, the stadium tour.

"Delron now went out publicly and said 'we did this and did that' but it was done through me. Everything that's there is 110% it's just that whatever has been said, the story has been twisted a little bit."

- Compiled by Sport24 staff

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