Posted September 19, 200618 yr A football manager has named an agent who he says attempted to bribe him. Luton Town's Mike Newell says freelance football agent Charles Collymore offered him a cut of a player's fee that he tried to negotiate. Mr Newell told BBC One's Panorama programme, due to be aired on Tuesday, that he rejected the offer and reported the agent to the Football Association. Mr Collymore denies offering or accepting any bungs, which are illegal payments made during transfer dealings. Mr Collymore, who was secretly filmed for the BBC programme, Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets, said he knew eight Premiership managers who would accept bungs. He made the allegation to Uefa-licensed coach Knut Auf dem Berge, who worked undercover for Panorama for nine months on an investigation into corruption in football. Mr Collymore says he gave Mr Auf dem Berge false information because he was suspicious of his agenda. Mr Newell met the Football Association in January to discuss his allegations that transfer bungs are rife in football. He claimed that "a lot of people involved with the agents and doing the deals are taking back-handers". Shortly afterwards, the then England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told the News of the World newspaper that three unnamed English Premiership clubs were riddled with corruption. The alleged corruption related to illegal payments in transfer deals. In March, Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was appointed as head of a probe into alleged transfer bungs in the Premier League. He is looking at irregular payments in transfer deals made since 1 January 2004 and he is expected to publish his findings within weeks. Source: BBC Sport Now I don't normally watch all these documentaries like Panorama and all that but I think this will be intresting tonight. Radio 1 have been plugging the show all day in newsbeat so the show must be up to something and incover some real dirt. Personally I think that football is totally ridden with all these bungs and bribes, and it happens in all leagues from the Premiership to some the non-league clubs and even though the FA are looking into this nothing will happen at all. -_-
September 19, 200618 yr Author What the hell is a bung ? If I get this wrong then don't rip me to pieces. :( I'm pretty sure its like this though: Say a club value a player at 1 million, and they want rid of a player, they ring up the players agent who tries to get him sell him to another club. He'll then say to another club that he can get the player for 2 million and then he'll keep the 1 million that was made. Its something like that anyhowz. I'm pretty sure that I haven't explained it properly though so if someone wants to correct me then please do. ^_^
September 19, 200618 yr Author Well if that's the case then what's the big deal ? :wacko: Well there basically ripping every football fan off. All the money that the club earns through merchandise, gate reciets etc is been used in these bungs, so the agents are basically taking our money that we've given to the clubs. -_-
September 19, 200618 yr Author How long can Sam Allardyce remain manager of Bolton Wanderers now? Thats exactly what I think. -_- I wasn't really paying much attention to the last half hour of it but was Harry Redknapp another main offender?.
September 19, 200618 yr Thats exactly what I think. -_- I wasn't really paying much attention to the last half hour of it but was Harry Redknapp another main offender?. He was the main one The Sun (reliable source) were saying it was.
September 19, 200618 yr Agents claim manager was bribed BBC News Two agents have claimed they made illegal payments to secure transfer deals with a former candidate for the England football manager's job. In an undercover BBC Panorama film, agent Teni Yerima says he bribed Bolton manager Sam Allardyce. Agent Peter Harrison says he paid Mr Allardyce's son to secure deals with Bolton and Craig Allardyce is filmed boasting about access to his father. Sam Allardyce told the BBC tonight he has never taken or asked for or received a bung. He said he would not condone any breach of FA rules whatever personal affection he has for his son. Mr Allardyce was named as a possible replacement for the England manager Sven Goran Eriksson before the job was given to Steve McClaren. Panorama also uncovered that three different Bolton transfer signings involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce, some when he was contractually banned from doing any Bolton deals. The club has admitted it knew nothing about the manager's son getting a cut of the money in these deals. In the secret filming Craig Allardyce told the undercover reporter: "I'll get the (player) profile and I'll walk straight into the office and sit down with me Dad. It's easy, it's easy." Craig Allardyce told the BBC that he had exaggerated his own importance to the undercover reporter in order to attract opportunities. He denied any wrongdoing in his Bolton deals or relationship with the club. The Portsmouth manager, Harry Redknapp, is secretly filmed discussing the possibility of buying the Blackburn captain Andy Todd, illegal under FA rules. At the meeting, Mr Redknapp tells agent Peter Harrison: "I like Toddy, don't I? No I'd take him. I would take him. I would take him without a doubt." But Mr Redknapp denies his conversation about Andy Todd with the agent Peter Harrison amounted to "tapping up". His assistant at Portsmouth at the time of the filming, Kevin Bond, is secretly recorded admitting he would consider discussing receiving payments from a proposed new agency involving Peter Harrison. Mr Bond also says he will discuss it with his then boss Harry Redknapp. Mr Redknapp told the BBC that he has never taken a bung and had given Kevin Bond no reason to think otherwise. When Mr Bond was told of the filming he said that he is not interested in receiving bungs and that no one he has ever worked with has taken a bung. The documentary also shows Chelsea's director of youth football, Frank Arnesen, secretly filmed making a illegal approach or "tapping up" Middlesbrough's England youth star 15-year-old Nathan Porritt. Last year, Chelsea were fined £500,000 by Premiership bosses, the Premier League, for "tapping up" Ashley Cole from rivals Arsenal. Chelsea have been warned they would be docked three Premiership points if they were ever caught at it again. Middlesbrough have confirmed that they did not give permission for the approach. Chelsea have denied that the filmed meeting broke any industry rules. In the programme, for the first time a former agent gives an on-camera interview about the corruption he says he has witnessed. Steven Noel-Hill said: "The game is corrupt. Bungs were the lubricant of deals. I would say that 80% of all deals have bungs attached to them." Three different licensed agents who are secretly filmed admit it is normal for some Premiership managers to take bungs. Charles Collymore - named publicly for the first time in the Panorama film by Luton Town manager Mike Newell as the agent who offered him an illegal payment - said to the undercover reporter: "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." When Mr Collymore was offered a right to reply to the filming he denied offering or accepting any bungs and says he gave the undercover reporter, UEFA-licensed coach Knut auf dem Berge, false information because he was suspicious of his agenda. Panorama also reveals that the Bolton chairman Phil Gartside - who is part of the Football Association board which helps police the game - misled his own fans. He complained in the press last August about an illegal approach to buy his captain Jay Jay Okocha and said he had asked Fifa to investigate. But Panorama finds out that eight days earlier he had been in a room with the agent Teni Yerima trying to sell Okocha. Mr Gartside has since told the BBC that he had not wanted to sell Okocha but could not ignore a generous offer for his player. Agent Peter Harrison has since denied that he is a corrupt agent and says that everything he said to the BBC's undercover reporter, Knut auf dem Berge, was merely pub gossip and banter. He says his payments to Craig Allardyce were legitimate. Agent Teni Yerima told the BBC that he made everything up as part of a plan to find out who Knut auf dem Berge was working for. In March, Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was appointed as head of a probe into alleged transfer bungs in the Premier League. He is looking at irregular payments in transfer deals made since 1 January 2004 and he is expected to publish his findings within weeks. This is a really big story and Bolton & Sam Allardyce are deep in the sh*t IMHO.
September 19, 200618 yr Author Well they focused the most on the Bolton side and withing the next few days I reckon both thr manager and chairman will resign. The chairman has totally misled the Bolton fans and I expect there will be a lot of Bolton fans feeling very angry tonight, and rightly so, as the chairman has been telling them $h!t thats totally untrue. -_-
September 19, 200618 yr tbh nothing that scadalous happened, for an 8 month investigation they didnt get a manager to take a bung on camera, it was ALL hear,say and gossip. Nothing particuly damning, i doubt the evidence would stand up in court if it got that far. But as a Luton fan im 100% behind Mike Newell for his brave stand against corruption. It takes a lot of courage to do what he has done. At the end of the day, he is a man of great integrity and I have no doubt that everything he has said is true? Why on earth would he make it all up? Let's shame the guilty ones! Edited September 19, 200618 yr by Joey Deacon
September 21, 200618 yr Author That program was a steaming pile of turd. It proved absolutely f*ck all! There was no proper concrete evidence it did prove that managers took bungs. I know theres no proof but three agents named Big Sam as a manager who takes bungs. -_- Which is near enough proof without any substancial evidence.
September 21, 200618 yr That program was a steaming pile of turd. It proved absolutely f*ck all! HAHA ....But implied plenty Nothing will come of the investigation Even if it was going on, the people doing the investigation will no doubt be bribed with a large sum of $$ -_-
September 21, 200618 yr For the time it lasted and the money that was spent it was APPALING. It should have had real, concrete evidence of it. And there wasn't really much. Far, far less than what was expected!
September 21, 200618 yr Author Well I admit that the actual points that were found out were pretty disappointing as there was nor real evidence and I doubt the outcomes will do much either, but Chelsea now will really be under the kosh. ^_^ I guess it got across the point though that a lot of tapping up goes on and the realisation that top managers take bungs.
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