'Immediate action' needed to kill off bung culture
By Mihir Bose - Telegraph, January 26, 2006
"....The problem for the bung buster is that so much of the relationship between the manager and the agent is so opaque. Nick Blackburn, the former chairman of Queens Park Rangers, tells of his club buying a goalkeeper who did not come up to expectations. They had to pay fees of £50,000 as the agent claimed he had to cover the expenses incurred in relation to the player. It then turned out that the former QPR manager had been told of a scouting report saying the goalkeeper leaked goals.
Blackburn, who met the FA bung busters yesterday to back up the bungs story told by Ian Holloway, the current QPR manager, also told them the goalkeeper's story including the names of the manager and agent involved.
We cannot print them for legal reasons."
'Immediate action' needed to kill off bung culture
By Mihir Bose - Telegraph, January 26, 2006
The former chief executive of the Premier League, Peter Leaver QC, has told The Daily Telegraph that to remove the bung culture the Premier League should bring in rules which will make it impossible for bungs to be paid during transfers.
"....Leaver said: "I don't see much point in looking into the past. The inquiry will get a lot of stories. I would be surprised if they get any evidence. My advice is that the QC or whoever is appointed to head it should immediately draft rules which make it very difficult to cheat."Leaver recommends that every club have a nominated director who should be the only person to handle transfers and talk to agents. This will cut out what is now considered the most common way bungs take place during a transfer.
Bungs have changed greatly since the first inquiry, which examined 12 transfers, hearing lots of evidence about cash being paid as a result of transfer deals. Ronnie Fenton, then Brian Clough's assistant at Nottingham Forest, featured prominently and in one case the inquiry was told he had collected £45,000 in a fishing box off a trawler in Hull over the transfer of Thorvaldur Orlygsson to Forest.
Now the bungs culture is more sophisticated, cash is not so evident and the money trail often goes through foreign bank accounts. The manager talks to an agent about a player and they agree the deal including the agent's fee, with the agent agreeing to pay some of it back to the manager.
Leaver added: "In such a case it is very difficult to trace a payment, but if you have a nominated director then when the agents suggest a price they can accept or reject.
"The Premier League should also have rules that every employee can have his bank account examined to make sure money is not siphoned off. And only agents approved by the Premier League and who allow access to their books and records can do business with clubs. They should put in place rules which make it very difficult to cheat and serious sanctions if they are caught."
Graham Bean, who for four years was the Football Association's bung buster, agrees that it is very difficult to catch a cheat. "In all the investigations you feel something is not quite right but you couldn't say it is wrong, you have a sixth sense,'' he said.
Bean is well aware that successful bung investigations require speedy work. Doug Ellis, the chairman of Aston Villa, worried by certain transfers during the managership of John Gregory, employed Kroll, the security experts, to trawl through bank accounts and presented the evidence to the FA.
However, Bean senses there may be a new mood, particularly in the Premier League, to sort things out. "They are fed up with rumours and innuendos. They are going to kill it or cure it."
The problem for the bung buster is that so much of the relationship between the manager and the agent is so opaque. Nick Blackburn, the former chairman of Queens Park Rangers, tells of his club buying a goalkeeper who did not come up to expectations. They had to pay fees of £50,000 as the agent claimed he had to cover the expenses incurred in relation to the player. It then turned out that the former QPR manager had been told of a scouting report saying the goalkeeper leaked goals.
Blackburn, who met the FA bung busters yesterday to back up the bungs story told by Ian Holloway, the current QPR manager, also told them the goalkeeper's story including the names of the manager and agent involved.
We cannot print them for legal reasons.