Last night's revelations in the Telegraph have had enormous consequences today, with the sacking of Sam Allardyce.
Tonight, the paper have more revelations relating to transfer impropriety, with various football agents claiming that eight Premier League managers have accepted a transfer 'bung', i.e. they accepted money to help facilitate a transfer take place.
None of the managers have been named, with Kaveh Solhekol of Sky Sports News reporting that one of the managers has taken legal action in order to prevent the publication of his name in the paper.
Lawyers acting for another high-profile manager believe they've stopped Daily Telegraph publishing story about him in tomorrow's paper
— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) September 27, 2016
Pino Pagliara, an unlicenced Italian agent who was banned from football for five years for match-fixing in 2005, spoke openly about his reliance on the “greed” of managers.
Agents told the Telegraph that certain managers were "bent", and were very happy to accept a "little coffee" in return for facilitating a transfer. This "little coffee" is used as code for "backhander".
One manager would request funds be deposited in an offshore account once a deal had gone through, according to one of the agents filmed.
Pagliara was quoted as saying "There’s one thing I’ve always been able to rely on, and that is the greed of general managers", before going on to say that "here it’s even worse… I thought the Italians were corrupt".
Tomorrow's Daily Telegraph front page: "Eight Premier League managers accused of taking transfer bungs" pic.twitter.com/gyb2NnUBA1
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 27, 2016
He gave the Telegraph an example of how it works:
We know him very, very well. We do a transfer to [named club], [X] has winked at us and said yeah, I want the player. Is there a little coffee for me, Pino? Yeah, that’s what he will say. “Yeah, course there is. I’ll negotiate that coffee as well.
In a later meeting, Pagliara claimed one manager would ask his players for kickbacks in return for a wage increase:
here was three players, and every month they would come into his office with £4,000 cash each of them, so he was getting £12,000. What happened was when they had done the deal he said 'they’ve done the wages and you’re going to get ten grand a week, so I’m going to give you 12 grand a week and you’re going to give me four grand a month – so obviously they were getting four grand a month extra and he was getting four grand.
The full story can be read on the Telegraph website here.
See Also: BT's Jake Humphrey Cops Flak And Deletes Tweet Critical Of English Press Over Allardyce Fall-Out
