Agents given ultimatum to cooperate

Football agents who fail to cooperate with Lord Stevens' inquiry into corruption in the sport could be suspended or lose their license and said his team may use Football Association rules to force agents to open accounts for inspection - after only 65 out of 150 cooperated.

The FA confirmed it can request the information under "powers of inquiry". An FA spokesman said that if they are asked to try to obtain information from agents, under our powers, we will do so."

Agents who fail to deliver the information required by the FA could then face a misconduct charge.

Lord Stevens looked into all 362 transfers that took place in the Premier League between January 1, 2004 through January 31, 2006 and announced that 39 transfers, involving eight clubs, will be investigated further over the next two months.

Roughly half of those involve foreign transfers and half are domestic transfers.

The identities of the eight clubs involved, and the 39 transfers, are not public, but if they are deemed to have involved illegal payments, then Lord Stevens will pass details to the Premier League, FA and if necessary the police. "We will do everything we possibly can to find out the truth. I promise that," Lord Stevens said.

The inquiry chief briefed a meeting of Premier League chairmen on the first seven months of the inquiry, but he decided not to make any recommendations on changes to the regulations until the investigation is completed.

"It's essential for the game to ensure there's a process to prevent the type of things being alleged and to give the public confidence. It has to be sorted out in the public interest and in the interest of genuine fans," Lord Stevens said.

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