The latest corruption in football - England

I just watched a documentary on bbc1 here and a lot of interesting information was divulged. Specifically, it identified and displayed corruption in the English game, especially bungs being paid (where managers get a little "present" from agents to get certain clients).

A lot of names will be brought out soon and specifically, the Allardyce (Bolton's manager Sam Allardyce being the biggest name) family and Harry Rednapp (manager of Portsmouth) are two of the biggest names in English football involved.

Clubs, like Chelsea and Liverpool have a scary road ahead too, found to be caught tapping a young England player up.

It seems that most major footballing nations have had leaks in corruption this year, and England is going through it next.

Did they specify anything,is smth illegal or just smth not wright to do??

Originally Posted by kastriot

Did they specify anything,is smth illegal or just smth not wright to do??

bungs that I mentioned above and tapping up players (I mentioned it too I think) are both illegal. We're potentially talking something as big as Calciopolli, though I have a feeling it won't quite get the huge.

HAha quiet ironic really sheva escapes one lot of corruption and now looks like hes joined a club that has somthing to do with corruption in england!

It wont be anywhere near as big as Serie A's problem in terms of how serious the offences are as bungs are widespread in world football and seen by those within the game as a victimless crime. If the clubs were really bothered by this sort of thing then they could very easily put an end to it by pressuring FIFA to change the agent laws.

The bbc documentary was quite dissapointing actually, the press have been dripfeeding stories about the revelations for months and the documentary didnt really add much new or provide any hard evidence. Allardyce's son has already said he was lying to impress the undercover journalists into giving him a role in the 'agency' they were setting up. All the rest will say the same, that they overplayed their influence in order to get partnerships in the agency, and unfortunately this pretty much kills any chance of getting evidence.

The only people i think might have trouble are Kevin Bond (though he was essentially asking for a retainer from the agency for prefferential treatment, not a specific bung for a player) and Frank Arnesen. Arnesen clearly said they would disguise a payment as a "royalty bonus" which is guess is danish for loyalty bonus though even with something that clear its hard to see what can be done as Chelsea didnt actually persuade the player to join them, they merely made an potential offer to his agent.

The agents will be the big losers here as who will want to work with them now? and rightly so too as they are one of the biggest problems in football today, syphoning huge amounts of money out of the game while doing so little to help it.

Steza have you heard much about the report that supposedly going to get released that apparently details who is involved in what?

I've only read whats been available in the media and made a few educated guesses where they leave names out for fear of being sued

Lord Stevens enquiry will have to include a hell of a lot more evidence if it is going to name and shame people, the BBC spent 18 months making their 'explosive' documentary and claimed to have the names of 18 managers, but in the end they only featured 2. Big Sam (who was never actually in the programme) would probably win if if sued them as all they had against him and as for Harry Redknapp, the evidence against him is laughable really and if what he said was considered tapping up then just about every manager on earth would be guilty

well... i never like England football n their media but this source from www.goal.com maybe can help u guys..

Panoramagate: Who Did & Said What? A Summary

BBC TV's Panorama programme, 'Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets', alleged that various prominent football figures received illegal payments, and accused others of wrongdoing.


But who is accused of what, and how have they responded?

Sam Allardyce

Who is he? Manager of Bolton Wanderers. Will have been in the job seven years next month. Aged 51, he has taken Bolton into Europe while consolidating their Premiership status following promotion in 2001. Was a candidate for the England manager's job this summer but lost out to Steve McClaren.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Revealed agents claiming that Allardyce received illegal payments from them.

How has he defended himself? Allardyce told the BBC he had never taken, asked for or received a bung and would not condone any breaches of the FA rules - regardles of his attachment to his son Craig (see below). Sam says he's prepared to take legal action against the BBC.


Harry Redknapp

Who is he? Manager of current Premiership leaders Portsmouth, ex-manager of Southampton, Portsmouth (first time around), West Ham and Bournemouth.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Redknapp was secretly filmed discussing the possibility of buying the Blackburn captain Andy Todd, technically regarded as illegal "tapping up" under FA rules because Todd is contracted to Rovers.

How has he defended himself? By denying that his conversation with agent Peter Harrison regarding Andy Todd amounted to "tapping up".


Kevin Bond

Who is he? Now first-team coach at Newcastle United, but was assistant to Redknapp at Portsmouth when Panorama filmed him. Also worked with Redknapp at Southampton, and been a coach at Manchester City, Wrexham, Altrincham and Stafford Rangers. As a player, Bond represented Norwich, Manchester City, Southampton and Bournemouth, plus England B. Is the son of John Bond, who was an FA Cup winner with West Ham and also played for Torquay before managing Bournemouth, Norwich, Manchester City, Burnley, Swansea, Birmingham and Shrewsbury.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Kevin Bond is secretly recorded admitting he would consider discussing receiving payments from a proposed new agency involving agent Peter Harrison. Bond also agrees to discuss it with his then boss, Redknapp.

How has he defended himself: Told the BBC he was not interested in receiving bungs. He also says no-one he has ever worked with has taken a bung.


Frank Arnesen

Who is he? Former Denmark international Arnesen is director of youth football at Chelsea, whom he joined controversially from Spurs in 2004 where he had replaced David Pleat as director of football. Tottenham reportedly received £8 millon in compensation from Chelsea for losing Arnesen after they threatened to report their West London neighbours for making an illegal approach to the ex-PSV man.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Arnesen is secretly filmed making an illegal approach (aka "tapping up") for Middlesbrough's England youth player Nathan Porritt, 15. He offers Porritt, through the youngster's agent Peter Harrison, a £150,000 'sweetener' to tempt the Boro player to join Chelsea.

How has he defended himself? Chelsea deny that any industry rules were broken during Arnesen's filmed conversations.


Peter Harrison

Who is he? A Fifa-licensed agent who represents Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen and was involved in Eidur Gudjohnsen's move from Wanderers to Chelsea in 2000.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Harrison told the Panorama undercover reporter that, in order to secure transfer deals with Bolton, he bribed Sam Allardyce by offering to pay his son Craig. Harrison has admitted giving bungs, including to Craig Allardyce.

How has he defended himself? Harrison denies he is a corrupt agent and insists that everything he said to the undercover reporter was nothing more than "pub gossip and banter."


Teni Yerima

Who is he? A footballers' agent. He represents Rangers midfielder Hamed Namouchi, and is a business associate of Harrison.

What have Panorama exposed about him? He is filmed saying he bribed Sam Allardyce.

How has he defended himself? Claims he made everything up as part of his plan to find out who the undercover reporter was working for.


Craig Allardyce

Who is he? Son of Sam, and until finding out about the Panorama programme, a football agent. After quitting the agency business last summer he has admitted in newspaper interviews that his working as an agent might have cost his father the chance of becoming England manager.

What have Panorama exposed about him? That three different Bolton transfer signings (Tal Ben Haim, Hidetoshi Nakata and Ali al-Habsi) involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce, some when he was contractually banned from doing any deals involving Bolton.

How has he defended himself? Craig Allardyce claims he was deliberately exaggerating his own importance to the undercover reporter so as to attract opportunities. He denies any wrongdoing in his Bolton deals or in his relationship with the club.


Charles Collymore

Who is he? Another Fifa-licensed agent who is identified in the film by Luton Town manager Mike Newell as having offered him an illegal payment.

What have Panorama exposed about him? Collymore claims in the film: "There's managers out there who take bungs all day long. I would say to you comfortably there's six to eight managers we could definitely approach and they'd be up for this no problem."

How has he defended himself? Collymore told Panorama that he made up what he said in order to find out what the undercover reporterr's real mission was.

Probably this is the way that english clubs are dealing in other countries too

Im sure we wont see a calciopoli in england
The system its much better there and its working and there are more moneys and bigger interests

apparently the vices of world's football are not all an italian affaire, as the european media wanted us to believe this summer. how much hypocrisy! i can only laugh reading such news, even if it's not very good for the game of football in general

At least in Italy they had the strength to do something about it

At least in Italy they had the strength to do something about it

its not really about strength, its about evidence. By its nature there are only 2 people involved in a bung, the agent giving it and the manager/coach/scout etc recieving it. As both are guilty of an offence neither are going to give evidence that would incriminate themselves. This means the only way to prove what has happened is to catch them red handed, something Panorama's programme failed to do.

By contrast Calciopoli was far more serious and actually organised. The actions of those involved were actually affecting other clubs, there were actual 'victims' as the clubs not involved suffered costly dubious decisions. With bungs there isnt a clear cut victim as the clubs get the player they want, the players gets the move they want and the agent collects his 15% of the deal (minus a small fee to the manager to smooth the deal along)

Calciopoli was a bigger scandal than this one no doubt about that

But when you see this scandals in other countrys (in Germany last year, in Belgium, Austria, Poland now England, this summer in Spain were talks about big players that are doped in some clinic there) and the reactions they had toward Calciopoli i start to wonder if football in this countrys it is played so honestly as they said

Thats true with all the money in football these days there are plenty of shady characters looking to take a chunk for themselves. As a keen gambler i keep an eye on betting trends and they can be quite revealing too, recently i saw one in the russian league where £500k was placed on a match (the average is nearer £10k) and 99% of it was placed on a particular result, which unsurprisingly happened

Its not often that someone outside the system gets to see it that clearly but i reckon i spot about 5 a season, usually too late to make money off it myself The real number of fixed games must be far higher than that.

I am sure Man Utd is also involved, they should be relegated to division 3