Eight current and former Premier League managers stand accused of receiving "bungs" for player transfers after the London Telegraph found "widespread evidence of corruption" in the English game, according to the TELEGRAPH. As Sam Allardyce lost his job as England manager, the FA faced a "separate crisis over the alleged bribery of managers." Football agents were filmed by undercover reporters "boasting about how many managers they had paid," with one agent saying that in football, "everything is under the table." It leaves the FA "facing its biggest crisis in recent years, as it deals with evidence that attempts to clean up the game have failed," while it also has to begin the search for a new manager of the England team. During a series of meetings with agents, managers and club officials over the summer, undercover reporters "built up a dossier of secret recordings" and other evidence that suggests corruption "remains a major problem in the English game." The Telegraph "has agreed to give all relevant transcripts" to the FA and has also passed information to the police. Pino Pagliara, an unlicensed Italian agent who was banned from football for five years for match-fixing in '05, spoke openly about his reliance on the "greed" of managers. With their guard dropped, the agents provided "a troubling insight" into a footballing nation where, according to one of them, "everything is under the table" and corruption is "widespread." Pagliara said, "There’s one thing I’ve always been able to rely on, and that is the greed of general managers." Asked if he meant he paid people in England, he replied, "Here it’s even worse. ... I thought the Italians were corrupt." As a "general rule of thumb," Pagliara said that it "was easier to bribe managers in the Championship because they earned less." However, he said that there were "one or two in the Premier League" that still took money. He named one manager who "likes money" to secure deals. On Tuesday he denied that he had ever "taken money to facilitate football transfers." Undercover reporters also met Pagliara’s business partner Dax Price, who talked openly about the "crooked deals" he had done and "the need to pay some managers to secure deals." Pagliara and Price "were not the only agents who claimed that money needed to be paid to secure deals." Scott McGarvey, a former ManU player turned agent, also met undercover reporters, "and rattled off the names of four managers" who were willing to take "bungs" (TELEGRAPH, 9/28).
LMA 'EXTREMELY CONCERNED': REUTERS' Shravanth Vijayakumar reported England's League Managers Association said on Wednesday that it is "extremely concerned" by newspaper allegations that EPL managers have received "bungs" for player transfers. It said in a statement, "The LMA is extremely concerned by the current situation of allegations made against a number of managers. We take the allegations very seriously as they are obviously damaging to the game. We are in regular communication with The FA to establish the facts relating to those allegations" (REUTERS, 9/28). The BBC reported U.K. Sports Minister Tracey Crouch also said that the allegations were "very concerning." She said, "We have been clear that we expect the highest standards of governance and transparency from sports governing bodies, here in the U.K. and on the international stage" (BBC, 9/28).
