Bungs in football

[KURUPTION-81]

What did everyone think of the accusations made in Panoroma last night, for those who didnt see it here r the main points.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/5362140.stm

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has been accused of receiving illegal payments from two agents.
Allardyce has been Bolton's manager since October 1999.

The 51-year-old has guided Bolton to eighth, sixth and eighth places in the last three Premiership seasons after engineering their promotion to the top flight in 2001.

The former Bolton defender has four years left on his 10-year contract at the Lancashire club.

Sam Allardyce told the BBC that he had never taken, asked for or received a bung and would not condone any breaches of the FA rules - whatever personal affection he has for his son Craig, an agent who is accused of receiving secret payments from agents during three transfer deals.

Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp is secretly filmed discussing the possibility of buying the Blackburn captain Andy Todd, illegal under FA rules.

Redknapp's Portsmouth side currently top the Premiership.

Last season he returned to Fratton Park for a second spell at the club to help save them from relegation to the Championship.

He has also managed Bournemouth, West Ham and Southampton.

Redknapp denied his conversation with Harrison regarding Andy Todd amounted to "tapping up".

The documentary also shows Chelsea's director of youth football, Frank Arnesen, secretly filmed making an illegal approach or "tapping up" Middlesbrough's England youth star 15-year-old Nathan Porritt.

Arnesen took up his role at Stamford Bridge in September 2005 following a controversial move from Spurs.

A compensation settlement, reported to be around £8m, was agreed after Spurs threatened to report Chelsea for an illegal approach to the Dane.

Arnesen, formerly with Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, arrived at White Hart Lane in May 2004, replacing David Pleat as director of football.

Chelsea deny the meetings filmed by the BBC broke any industry rules.

Newcastle first-team coach Kevin Bond is secretly recorded admitting he would consider discussing receiving payments from a proposed new agency involving Harrison.

Bond also says he will discuss it with his then boss Harry Redknapp.

Bond is currently number two to Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder after moving from Portsmouth in July.

He had returned to Portsmouth as assistant manager to Redknapp.

He had been on the coaching staff at Fratton Park but followed Redknapp when he moved to Southampton in 2005.

Bond previously had coaching spells at Manchester City, Wrexham, Altrincham and Stafford Rangers.

During his playing career Bond played for Norwich and was an England B defender.

Kevin Bond told the BBC he was not interested in receiving bungs. He also says no-one he has ever worked with has taken a bung.

Agent Peter Harrison told the undercover reporter that, to secure transfer deals with Bolton, he bribed Sam Allardyce by offering to pay his son Craig.

Harrison is a Fifa-listed agent, who is based in the north-east of England.

He represents Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen and was involved in Eidur Gudjohnsen's move from the Lancashire club to Chelsea in the summer of 2000.

Gudjohnsen moved from Chelsea to Barcelona this summer.

Harrison denied he is a corrupt agent and says that everything he said to the undercover reporter was merely pub gossip and banter.

Agent Teni Yerima in the undercover BBC Panorama film is shown saying he bribed Bolton manager Sam Allardyce.

Yerima, who represents former Rangers midfielder Hamed Namouchi, is a business associate of Harrison.

Yerima told the BBC that he made everything up as part of his plan to find out who the undercover reporter was working for.

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.

Panorama alleged Bolton's transfer signings of defender Tal Ben Haim, midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata and goalkeeper Ali al-Habsi involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce.

Allardyce's son quit the agency business last summer and has admitted in newspaper interviews that his working as an agent might have cost his father the chance of becoming England manager.

Craig Allardyce said he was exaggerating his own importance to the undercover reporter in order to attract opportunities. He denied any wrongdoing in his Bolton deals or in his relationship with the club.

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 - says in the Panorama 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."

Collymore represents England cricketer Simon Jones as well as having an extensive knowledge of French football.

He has dealt with Eric Djemba-Djemba, the Cameroonian midfielder who moved from Nantes to Manchester United for £3.5m in 2003, and who is now with Aston Villa.

Charles Collymore told Panorama he had made up what he said to find out the undercover reporter's real agenda.

[Rud]

i dont know...i think a lot is BS...agents making claims etc..

i doubt allardyce would ever have done anything like that, his son however i have heard some stories about, dude is waaaaaaaaay above himself, god knows what he's done/said

wait and see for a full investigation i guess, panorama did an NHS programme a little while ago and details/claims were vastly over-done...so im always wary...

[KURUPTION-81]

i dont know...i think a lot is BS...agents making claims etc..

i doubt allardyce would ever have done anything like that, his son however i have heard some stories about, dude is waaaaaaaaay above himself, god knows what he's done/said

wait and see for a full investigation i guess, panorama did an NHS programme a little while ago and details/claims were vastly over-done...so im always wary...

i think his son is probably guilty, i mean he basically admitted it when he said he had been involved in deals for haim, nakata and al-Habsi even though he was banned and not listed on the documentation.

It was ironic that chelsea tapped up Arnesen and then Arnesen was caught tapping up the boro lad.

Also thought it was funny when Gartside (boltons chairman) told the press that he was outraged at an agent for an illegal aproach for okacha. Even though Gartside was in the meeting with the agent and even told the agent how much money it would cost another club to buy okocha.

[Rud]

yea that was dodgy by gartside, dudes a prick