Newell IDs bung agent

Luton Town manager Mike Newell identified the football agent who, he claims, offered him a cut of the player's fee during negotiation.

Newell fingered Charles Collymore as the guilty party. Newell said he rejected the offer and reported the agent to the Football Association. Newell met with the Football Association in January to discuss his allegations that transfer bungs are rife in football.

Collymore, who works as a freelance agent, denies offering or accepting any bungs, or illegal payments made to managers during transfer dealings. Collymore, in undercover BBC filming, said he knew eight Premier League managers who would accept bungs.

He made the allegation to coach Knut Auf dem Berge, who worked undercover for the BBC's Panorama programme for nine months on an investigation into corruption in football.

Collymore now claims he intentionally misled the coach. He said he gave Auf dem Berge false information because he was suspicious.

Collymore, whose CS Sports Management firm has represented Premiership players such as Salif Diao, Khalilou Fadiga and Eric Djemba-Djemba, is captured on film which was broadcast on Newsnight last night, making remarks about football's undeclared incomes.

"There's managers out there who take bungs all day long," said Collymore. "[Unnamed manager], you know that, takes bungs all day long. We've got [unnamed club], yep 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."

The Panorama programme is scheduled to air Tuesday. It is believed producers intend to reveal the identities of the individuals Collymore, who did not know he was being filmed, names in the programme.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp insists he has done nothing wrong and had challenged Newell to make public the identities of those who offered him payments.

Former Portsmouth assistant Kevin Bond, now at Newcastle, is one person who has threatened legal action against Panorama. The programme features audio of a secretly taped conversation between Bond, who was then working for Portsmouth.

BBC sources confirmed the exchange would be included tonight, despite a written warning from Bond's lawyers.

Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has been overseeing a probe into alleged transfer bungs in the Premier League. He is looking at irregular payments in transfer deals made since 1 January 2004. He is expected to publish his findings within two weeks.

One difficulty apparently facing football's authorities is that the paper trail involved in covert payments is deliberately obfuscated by the use of offshore accounts.

The FA had been expected last month to deliver the fruit of its compliance unit's inquiry. But, with Panorama launching its own probe 12 months ago, the findings will not be released until later this month.

"Officials at football clubs have allowed it to go on," said Newell on Radio Five Live Monday night. "Someone is benefiting somewhere along the line. I was offered money on two occasions and I have only been a manager four years. On one occasion it was a football club official trying to make a deal go through."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.