The wild and whacky career of Sven-Goran Eriksson included a trip to North Korea organised by a conman who almost brought a lower-league club to its knee. The football world was left stunned in 2009 when the former England boss was named director of football of League Two Notts County, best known for being the world’s oldest professional football club.
The Swede’s arrival followed the takeover by a mysterious consortium called Munto Finance, led by Russell King. Convicted fraudster King said the takeover would bring in millions of pounds of Middle Eastern investment.
He pledged to take the club up the Football League and big-name signings like Kasper Schmeichel and Sol Campbell were lured to the fourth tier on huge contracts. However, it turned out that Munto’s promises and bank balance were empty.
As questions were raised about the foundations of the takeover, Eriksson was sent to Pyongyang to meet government leaders over potential investment in the club. In return for their investment, North Korea bizarrely asked if Eriksson could fix the 2010 World Cup draw to give the country an easier group.
It later transpired that North Korea, as well as Eriksson, had been hoodwinked by Munto. Explaining his surreal visit to the world’s most secretive country in the Prime Video documentary about his life, ‘Sven’, he recalled: “First of all, I didn’t want to go to North Korea but the owners told me to go. It was to get money.
“It was another world. We were not allowed to go out. We lived in a hotel in a big park. If you tried to go out, it was a man with a weapon [holds an imaginary gun], saying ‘no’.”
On the meetings with officials, who thought Eriksson had the power to manipulate the World Cup draw, he added: “The figures we were talking about were not millions but billions of dollars.
“What they wanted from me was an easy group for the World Cup. I said ‘I can’t do that’. I think the owners had promised a lot to North Korea and that hadn’t come. When we would leave, they [the owners] ran to another gate and that was the last time I saw them. There we stood, no money.”
When it became apparent that Munto’s coffers were bare, Notts were left £7million in debt. The likes of Eriksson gave up millions in order to help the ailing club survive.
He continued: “We tried to get other sponsors, it was difficult. So we gave away everything, we didn’t ask [for] any money.
“Just thank you, bye. Otherwise, the club would have gone bankrupt. It looks like a stupid story and maybe it was stupid. But I really believed in it.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk