Newcastle heading into "tapping up" controversy.

French outfit Sochaux are considering reporting Newcastle United to UEFA after allegedly "tapping up" their striker Modibo Maiga.

Maiga is currently on strike at his club and is determined to push through a move to NUFC according to several interviews over the last week or so, so I think it's safe to assume that he knows of our interest.

I did think at the time that it was strange how the player knew so much as he claimed that he'd even met people from Newcastle. However I also distinctly remember him only going on strike after Sochaux refused to accept the bid from us so somewhere inbetween is where the truth will be found.

I'm not making it look like a storm in a teacup as tapping up is serious business and carries heavy penalties, but only an idiot would think that it doesn't happen (look at Jose Enrique) and I do think things aren't as one way as the Sochaux president Alexandre Lacombe claims.

"Newcastle are going on contacting our players despite our refusal," Lacombe told L'Est Republicain. "So we will register a complaint with Uefa, telling them such behaviour is not fair play. It is provoking destabilisation."

Personally I think this is just Sochaux playing hardball. I remember Chelsea had much the same problem with Gael Kakuta and were subsequently banned from making transfers although funnily enough that ban was lifted when they finally reached an agreement with Lens.

Whilst no official complaint has been handed in yet the threat is no doubt there. It's not nice reading about it but before people jump on the bandwagon and say it's "typical bad behaviour" from us or similar just take a step back and look at the fact that there has been no complaint as of yet.

Hopefully it stays that way as we could do without this.