http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1876494,00.html
Allardyce and son accused in bung exposé
========================================
Matt Scott
Wednesday September 20, 2006
The Guardian
Sam Allardyce was last night accused by two football agents of accepting
bungs in secret filming conducted by investigators from the BBC's
Panorama programme. Peter Harrison and his French associate Teni Yerima
have claimed that the Bolton Wanderers manager had taken illicit
payments in the course of his transfer activity.
The two agents alleged that Allardyce, who was on the short list to
succeed Sven-Goran Eriksson as England manager, has received undeclared
monies.
Harrison, a well-known figure in football, suggested it requires a close
relationship with club officials if covert money is to change hands.
Speaking specifically about the payment of bungs, Harrison said told
undercover reporters: "When you first go and you approach people they go
'ah, no, no.' There's some [managers] I've offered money to who I know
... But I mean this one I know will do good business and he's a good guy."
Allardyce's son Craig is a practising agent who, Harrison alleged, takes
payments in order to facilitate transfer deals involving Bolton. "If I
say, 'Listen Sam, I'll give Craig some money' ... he'll say, 'Yeah, OK,
well do a deal," said Harrison in footage broadcast last night on
Panorama's Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets. Harrison has since
claimed the payments to Craig Allardyce were legitimate.
Harrison yesterday promised a robust legal defence. "Have a good look at
the programme and see where the bungs are: there aren't any," he said
last night. "There is no film, no evidence of them happening at all; no
money changes hands. I've been in football for a lot of years and I've
never had anything at all to do with bungs and I wouldn't want to."
Panorama allege the transfers to Bolton of Tal Ben Haim, Hidetoshi
Nakata and the goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi had involved undisclosed payments
to Craig Allardyce from other agents. His father, the Bolton manager,
denied to the BBC that he has ever taken, asked for or received a bung
and that he would not condone any illegal activity involving his son.
Craig Allardyce told the BBC that he had exaggerated his importance in
the deals to undercover reporters in order to attract business and
denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Bolton.
The programme alleged that Bolton were unaware of the payments to Craig
Allardyce, which included a £50,000 for the Ben Haim transfer. However
Craig Allardyce revealed to an undercover reporter that his father was
aware of the payments. "Yeah, course he knew, course he knew ... I've
never hidden anything," said the agent.
In the deals involving the Japan international midfielder Nakata and the
Oman goalkeeper Al-Habsi, it was Harrison who allegedly paid Allardyce's
son. Payments to Allardyce Jr for work involving Bolton do not in
themselves constitute a specific breach of Football Association rules.
It is not permitted for managers to deal with football agencies in which
they hold a financial interest but there are no regulations about
associations with relatives.
None the less, the Football Association has requested that the BBC
forward its tape to its own compliance unit for further consideration.
"We have watched the programme with interest; we have asked the BBC to
submit its findings from the investigation to us," said a spokesman.
Again talking to secret cameras, Yerima, an agent licensed with the
French football federation, expands on the mechanisms used to make
undisclosed payments. "I have an account in Switzerland; I have an
account in Monaco ... so, with those banks, we can try to give the money
back," said Yerima. "And that [means] the general manager, the manager,
is happy himself because he is involved inside the deal. That is the
best way to work ... But I can also, if they want, we can bring the cash
for them." Yerima, who could not be contacted last night, insisted to
the BBC he had fabricated everything as part of a plot to find out the
identities of the undercover reporters.
Harrison admitted to the reporters that he had organised a £30,000
payment to one high-profile club's chief scout, saying: "[The sum of]
£30,000 to the chief scout - he's a good guy and that's a fortune to him
... Now he's trying to put another [player] in for us." When confronted,
Harrison insisted everything he had told the reporters was pub gossip
and banter.
Panorama made further allegations of a Chelsea plot to "tap up"
Middlesbrough's England youth international Nathan Porritt, conducted by
the Premiership champions' head of youth development Frank Arnesen.
Chelsea deny any wrongdoing
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