Bradford City's returning hero Stuart McCall has launched a blistering verbal attack on former chairman Jack Tordoff.

The former Scotland international claims in his autobiography The Real McCall, published today, that he will always be 'sickened' by his dealings with Tordoff when the midfielder joined Everton for £875,000 ten years ago.

He alleges that the board tried to back out of a tax free payment struck the previous summer with then chairman, the late Stafford Heginbotham. Both McCall and team-mate John Hendrie were handed a contract of £500 per week and a signing-on fee of £25,000 after tax, payable in two instalments, he claims.

Responding to McCall's claims Tordoff, speaking over the weekend, said he could not understand why McCall was so bitter and added that he was 'stunned' by the allegations.

Tordoff said he had not been made aware of the tax-free payment deal agreed with Heginbotham.

After criticising the board for not signing new players to back the club's push for promotion in 1988, McCall adds in his book: "Then Tordoff came back to haunt me again. I was still to be paid the second half of a payment agreed with Stafford when I signed my deal the summer before.

"The club paid the first £12,500 and I was waiting on the other one. I was amazed to find they sent me a cheque for £4,172.85."

McCall took the club to the Football League and, after a second hearing, won his case, but the episode clearly still rankles.

He accuses the club of trying a 'cheap trick' writing: "This all left a bad taste.

"The chairman even went public and told the local paper I had made £80,000 in my last season, trying to make me look a money-grabber."

Tordoff is still City's Honorary Life President and his company JCT 600 are shirt sponsors.

McCall adds: "It wasn't until many years later that I bumped into Jack Tordoff, sadly at Stafford's funeral. We politely shook hands, but inside I will always be sickened by the dealings over the money.

"Even worse, I point the finger at the board for failing in that final push (for promotion).

"The money was really irrelevant, it was the principle and the fact that they were doing this to me. I had brought them in £875,000 and they were arguing about £8,000."

Replying to the allegations, Tordoff said: "Stuart was very close to Stafford Heginbotham, and he and Stuart arranged a deal while they were on a club end-of-season holiday," he said.

"Stuart signed a three-year contract, but Stafford promised him privately that if we didn't get promotion he could leave the club. Stafford also promised him a signing-on fee of £50,000, and that went into his contract, but Stafford didn't tell the board that this sum was tax-free.

"At the end of the season we allowed Stuart to break his contract and leave for Everton to further his career because a promise had been made to him.

"His contract said nothing about a tax-free payment, so we paid him the remainder of his £50,000 having deducted the tax first, and he didn't like it. I cannot pay people tax-free money so we deducted the tax.

"Stuart took us to a tribunal. The tribunal ruled in favour of the club, but Stuart appealed against this decision and got Stafford to go with him. Stafford told the tribunal he had promised a tax-free payment to Stuart so the club paid up on the same day.

Tordoff added: "I always wanted to do things in the right way and I would not agree to requests for tax-free money.

"Stuart must have thought the board knew all about it, but it was a private arrangement with Stafford.

"I also gave Stuart a car when he left the club. That wasn't in any contract - it was a gift from Bradford City for his service to the club."

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