Eight Premier League managers, current and former, have been accused of accepting “bungs” for player transfers by a number of football agents in a Daily Telegraph exclusive, highlighting further corruption in the English game.
This follows yesterday’s scandal with Sam Allardyce, in which the ex-England manager was sacked after advising undercover reporters how to “get around” player transfer rules.
In case you don’t know what “bungs” are, the Cambridge Dictionary states them as, “A payment made to someone to persuade them to do something, usually something dishonest. These payments can also be referred to as a ‘kickback’ or a ‘backhander’.”
Undercover reporters, acting as representatives of a Far Eastern firm looking to invest in football, filmed unbeknownst football agents, such as Pino Pagliara, Dax Price (Pagliara’s business partner) and former Manchester United player-turned agent Scott McGarvey, admitting to unlawful acts of ex-Premier League managers.
Scott McGarvey said to one of the reporters that he was still paying a current manager £5,000 in “readies” for a player transfer.
Pagliara, who has negotiated with the same manager, admitted the football boss liked to have backhanders deposited in Swiss bank accounts to “follow their tracks”.
Pagliara also confessed that managers would often talk in code about “bungs”, who used “little coffee” as a codeword, giving an example of one specific manager.
“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,” he revealed.
The eight managers are yet to be named, but look out for a Daily Telegraph exclusive soon, as they continue to reveal their investigation.
A grave day indeed for English football, it’s bemusing to think we could plummet even further since the Euros.