Sven-Goran Eriksson's heartbreaking final admission about his role in football's greatest con

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Sven-Goran Eriksson recalls how a “dream was ruined” in one of his last ever interviews.

Former England boss Eriksson recounts his bizarre seven months at Notts County in one of football’s most remarkable scandals. Notts County, the oldest professional club in the world , became embroiled in a multi-million fraud and money laundering scam which is being laid bare in incredible detail in a brilliant new Sky documentary.

King of Lies: Football’s Greatest Con - which airs on Sunday night - follows the breathtaking story of how a conman tricked his way into buying a football club and took Eriksson to North Korea where he was asked to fix a World Cup draw. Eriksson says in the documentary: “It looked too good to be true. They offered me the football club when they left the meeting. It was a dream.”

It is mind-boggling in its complexity and even fooled the late Sir John Walker, the former head of military intelligence.

But it is Eriksson’s remarkable interview - filmed three months before his death in August last year - which is really heart wrenching as he was appointed director of football at Notts County in July 2009 and even stayed on after it became clear the whole thing was a sham.

Eriksson did not get a penny after finally resigning the following February after being recruited, along with former England defender Sol Campbell, as the headline names in the Notts County scandal.

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Russell King was the fraudster behind the Notts County story and recruited a long list of people with a string of false promises. TV producer Matt Lorenzo, the well-known presenter and host, was recruited as the club’s director of communications and recalls how Eriksson told him he was left broken hearted by the Notts County sham.

Lorenzo said: “It was one of Sven’s last interviews. We went to his home in Sweden and he gave us so much time because, of course, we had worked together and formed this relationship.

“Sven actually said they ruined his dream. He was a lovely man but quite naive as people can see from being caught up in this, the fake Sheikh and he was probably too trusting. The one person who probably sussed it first was Sol Campbell because he played one game and then he was off!

“They were so clever and they fooled me. I remember going to the meeting and thinking: ‘well, if Sir John Walker, the former head of military intelligence is on board, then it must be kosher.’ But they had fooled him as well.”

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Incredibly, Lorenzo was the only employee who actually got paid - just two weeks’ money - before the fake consortium hit and run.

But before they did, King somehow persuaded Eriksson to join him on a trip to North Korea where a promise had been made to deliver an oil tanker in exchange for minerals and cash.

Lorenzo added: “Sven clearly didn’t want to go, was eventually persuaded and when he got there he was greeted by the head of their World Cup committee who asked him for a soft draw. It ended up with them at the airport about to fly home, they had twigged something was not right and an official said came over to them and said: ‘You’ll be alright, but I’m not sure about him.’”

King ended up running across the runway, getting on a plane and yet still was not finished as, soon after, he tried to buy the BMW Formula One team. Luckily, investigative journalist Matt Scott tipped off Bernie Ecclestone.

Lorenzo, who has also just started up a new podcast, added: “It is an incredible story and I was talking about it with my business partner and he said: ‘there’s a documentary in this.’

“Sven realised it was all fake and yet he stayed on while everyone else - me included - just cut and run. The one set of people who get forgotten are the fans. Luckily, what is forgotten, and against all of the odds, they somehow got promoted that season.”

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