Heavyweight league agent Sam Ayoub called protege a ‘lying weasel’, court hears
Top NRL player agent Sam Ayoub unleashed a torrent of abusive text messages on his former employee after he allegedly tried to poach top talent when he struck out on his own, a court has heard.
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Top NRL player agent Sam Ayoub unleashed a torrent of abusive text messages on his former employee after he allegedly tried to poach top talent when he struck out on his own, a court has heard.
With a five-star client list that includes future immortal Johnathan Thurston and grand final combatants Jordan Rapana and Victor Radley, Mr Ayoub launched action in the Federal Court against former employees Antoun Zibara and Patrick Angeli.
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Mr Ayoub is suing his former employees for damages after, he says, they poached up to 16 players from his Ultra Management Sports (UMS) agency in 2017.
Both Mr Zibara and Mr Angeli have denied the allegations.
For seven years Mr Zibara worked under Mr Ayoub but, in late 2017, he and junior agent Patrick Angeli resigned and started their own agency called Genesis Talent Management.
On Wednesday, Mr Zibara’s lawyer John Ireland QC read out increasingly irate text messages Mr Ayoub sent to Mr Zibara after he started his own business.
They included, “F … ing conniving, lying weasel”, “every dog has its day” and “smile for the cameras today boys because you won’t be smiling for the mug shots”.
Further texts warned Mr Zibara the media would knock on his door and urged him to get a good lawyer.
“Wake up to yourself get your fat head out of the sand and deal with it like a man rather than a deceitful p … y,” the text said.
Mr Ayoub, under cross- examination from Mr Ireland, disagreed he was threatening his former protege.
“There’s no threat,” he told the court. “I was reminding him he’d done the wrong thing.”
The court also heard evidence from NRL agent accreditation chief Paul Massey, who said he had been investigating Mr Zibara in 2018 after a complaint about his conduct as an agent.
Mr Massey said he made a diary note following a March, 2018 phone call with Mr Zibara in which he said. “What was I meant to do? Leave with nothing?”
The matter resumes in court on Thursday.