Agents take hit on Panorama

Some managers did not fare well during the BBC programme Panorama, but agents might have fared just as bad.

Steven Noel-Hill, a former agent, gave an on-camera interview about the corruption in the game.

"The game is corrupt," he said. "Bungs were the lubricant of deals. I would say that 80 percent of all deals have bungs attached to them."

Three different licensed agents who are secretly filmed admit it is normal for some Premier League managers to take bungs.

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, said to the undercover reporter that, "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 denied offering or accepting any bungs, and says he gave the undercover reporter, UEFA-licensed coach Knut auf dem Berge, false information because he was suspicious of his agenda.

Panorama also reveals that the Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, who is part of the Football Association board which helps police the game, misled fans.

Gartside complained in the press last August about an illegal approach to buy his captain Jay Jay Okocha and said he had asked FIFA to investigate. Panorama revealed that, eight days earlier, he had been in a room with agent Teni Yerima discussing the sale of Okocha.

Gartside told the BBC that he had not wanted to sell Okocha but could not ignore a generous offer for his player.

Agent Peter Harrison has since denied that he is a corrupt agent and said that everything he said to Knut auf dem Berge, was merely pub gossip and banter.

He said his payments to Craig Allardyce, son of Bolton's manager, were legitimate.

Yerima told the BBC that he made everything up as part of a plan to find out who auf dem Berge was working for.

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce had his chance to respond to allegations that he accepted bungs.

Allardyce was shown on BBC's Panorama programme as one who allegedly took illegal payments from Yerima and Harrison, who said he bribed Allardyce's son, Craig.

Allardyce gave his reaction to the allegations Tuesday night.

"I'm doing my job and tonight is very difficult in that time in itself," he told BBC Radio Five Live. "I'm aware of the situation and because I haven't seen anything of the programme, I need to have a look at that before I make any comment whatsoever. But if there are things saying wrong about Sam Allardyce, believe you me, I will be fighting them."

Allardyce was named as a possible replacement for the England manager Sven Goran Eriksson before the job was given to Steve McClaren.

Panorama uncovered three different Bolton transfer signings involved secret payments from agents to Craig Allardyce, some when he was contractually banned from doing any Bolton deals.

The club has admitted it knew nothing about the manager's son getting a cut of the money in these deals.

In a secret filming, Craig Allardyce told the undercover reporter: "I'll get the (player) profile and I'll walk straight into the office and sit down with me Dad. It's easy, it's easy."

Craig Allardyce responded by telling the BBC that he had exaggerated his own importance to the undercover reporter in order to attract opportunities. He denied any wrongdoing.

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

At the meeting, Redknapp told Harrison: "I like Toddy, don't I? No, I'd take him. I would take him. I would take him without a doubt."

Redknapp claimed that was not a case of "tapping up."

His assistant at Portsmouth at the time of the filming, Kevin Bond, was secretly recorded admitting he would consider discussing receiving payments from a proposed new agency involving Harrison. Bond also said he will discuss it with Redknapp.

When Bond was told of the filming, he said that he is not interested in receiving bungs and that no one he has ever worked with has taken a bung.

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.

Middlesbrough confirmed it did not give permission for the approach. Chelsea denied the meeting broke any industry rules.

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