LONDON, (Reuters) – Hours after Sam Allardyce was sacked as England manager for inappropriate conduct, the Football Association was hit by a new crisis as eight current and former Premier League managers stand accused of receiving ‘bungs’ for player transfers after a long-running investigation by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The British newspaper said it had agreed to hand over its findings to the FA and the police after its undercover reporters discovered “widespread evidence of corruption in the English game” by filming soccer agents boasting about how many managers they had paid off.
The revelation comes 24 hours after Allardyce was shown negotiating a deal worth 400,000 pounds ($520,840) to represent a firm seeking advice on the transfer market. He claimed he could help the firm circumnavigate FA and FIFA rules banning transfers involving third-party ownership.
That meeting led to the 61-year-old losing his job on Tuesday after only 67 days.
Yesterday, the Telegraph outlined other corruption allegations without disclosing any names. All of the individuals were contacted and denied any wrongdoing, the newspaper said.
The allegations included player agents naming “a total of eight current or recent Premier League managers who they said were known for taking ‘bungs’ (illicit payments) including five they said they had personally paid off”.
It also said that two managers of Championship (second tier) clubs had also accepted illicit payments, while another manager was known to demand kickbacks from his own players for increasing their wages, the newspaper said.
The newspaper also detailed how the money was transferred with the payments being routed through a third party via a “consultancy agreement with somebody who he trusts”.
