BORDEAUX.

France, March 2 (Reuters/ Internet): Soccer agent Ljubomir Barin told a French court on Tuesday he helped Girondins Bordeaux attempt to bribe referees with offers of gifts and girls before European Cup matches in the 1980s.

The Croat is one of four men on trial charged with fraud and bribery. The other three are the club's ex-general manager, the former secretary-general and another agent.

"All the European referees wanted to come to Bordeaux," Barin told the court.

He said he had offered his services to then Bordeaux president Claude Bez, who died last year, after Girondins "got robbed" by a refereeing decision in a European Cup match against Hamburg SV in 1981.

After that he had received 500.000 francs ($100,000) ahead of each European Cup match to ensure there was no repeat.

The court is trying to find

out what happened to a sum of 4.2 million francs ($800,000) spent by the club between 1983 and 1988.

Barin said on Tuesday: "Bordeaux would offer fur coats, shirts, gifts for the kids.

Sometimes girls. I don't deny it. There were sometimes three or four of them.”

But former club secretarygeneral Herve Bizot said the money was not meant to bribe referees but "to create a favourable environment around them."

France’s two most famous referees. Michel Vautrot and Joel Quiniou. both testified it was the custom for referees to be offered gifts at European Cup matches.

"But it was after the games and in the presence of the UEFA delegate." Vautrot said. "They were gifts bearing the team's colours, nothing else."

Barin insisted such practices as he had described were no longer taking place in European soccer.

The trial continues.