The FA has not "re-examined the findings of a multi-million pound investigation which raised questions about Sam Allardyce," despite sacking him for telling undercover journalists he could get around the governing body’s rules, according to Ian Herbert of the London INDEPENDENT. The Stevens Report recommended in June '07 that the FA should "continue with their investigation" into four transfers of players to Bolton when Allardyce was manager was there, "in each of which the manager’s son Craig appeared to be involved." But it has "always been a source of frustration to the Premier League." Neither these four cases, nor others involving different clubs, "were submitted to examination" by FIFA or the FA. As the governing body "waits for police to release transcripts" of a London Telegraph sting in which Allardyce boasted that he "thought there was a way around third party ownership rules, the vastly more forensic work undertaken by Stevens appears to be considered too far in the past" to warrant further consideration now. Sources close to John Stevens said that it was a matter for the football authorities "if they chose to make no further inquiries" regarding "concerns" his team raised over the transfer of four players to Allardyce’s Bolton. The sources said that Stevens and his Quest private investigation company had undertaken the probe "as a commercial project and it was up to football and police what they did with the findings." As well as the FA’s lack of action over the Allardyce cases, FIFA declined to look at a number of transfers flagged as "suspicious" which related to the Israeli agent Pini Zahavi (INDEPENDENT, 10/11).
