Holloway Recounts his £30,000 "bung" Offer...Nick Blackburn Backs up Holloway's Claim

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Telegraph - I Was Offered a £30,000 Bung,' says Holloway

I was offered a £30,000 bung,' says Holloway By William Johnson 20/01/2006

Ian Holloway, the Queens Park Rangers manager... claimed to have been offered a £30,000 "bung" from a player's agent to facilitate a free transfer signing. Like Newell last week he has promised to name the alleged offender but like Newell he admits that any charge is going to be extremely difficult to prove.
Holloway reflected: "I thought I was getting a certain player on a free transfer. His agent then came back to me and said 'my fee is this amount and you will get that from it'.
"I went back to the board and said 'You must be joking'. I earn my money through my contract, not any other way. I've got nothing to hide. There are agents out there with whacking great wheelbarrows who say, 'Fill that up with money'."
Holloway has earned a reputation for eccentricity and outspoken behaviour but his comments yesterday have been endorsed by former Rangers chairman Nick Blackburn - who was in charge of the club when the inducement was offered.
Blackburn said: "Ian called me and said the agent of the player we were interested in wanted £50,000 - and Olly [Holloway] was going to get £30,000 of it. We didn't think the player in question was worth £50,000, never mind that amount for his agent. In the end we settled on a £4,000 handling fee. I heard stories all the time when I was chairman. I'm very disappointed that the game has to endure this."
Holloway's revelations came 24 hours after Newell met Football Association officials to discuss his own complaints about the way agents are affecting the game. Holloway has also promised to co-operate with Soho Square. He added: "I can't prove what happened because I didn't record it. Fair play to Mike, but I'm not surprised nobody is going to support him. I don't think Mike's a liar. I just think he's very frustrated."
The FA said after meeting with Newell that they would take time to reflect on his comments and they indicated last night that they would follow a similar course of action with Holloway...
http://sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2006/01/20/sfnbun20.xml&sSheet=/sport/2006/01/20/ixfooty.html


Also: Independent - January 20, 2006
"Holloway 'offered £30,000 by agent'
By Kieran Daley
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article339906.ece