Agents accuse Allardyce of accepting 'bungs'

Panorama's investigation into corruption in football: 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 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, had received undeclared monies.

Harrison, a well known figure in football, suggested it required a close relationship with club officials if covert money was to change hands. Speaking specifically about the payment of bungs, he 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, took 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, we'll 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 alleged 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 said 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 Bolton were unaware of the payments to Craig Allardyce, which included £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.

Nonetheless, 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," he said.

"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 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 also 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 who offered the 15-year-old England youth star £150,000 over three years to move clubs. Chelsea deny any wrongdoing.

The programme also suggested Liverpool had tried to tempt Porritt from Middlesbrough.

The programme, which used an undercover reporter posing as an agent, also alleged that: three agents named in the programme admitted giving bungs; Newcastle assistant manager Kevin Bond admitted he would consider discussing receiving payments from agents and that Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp was involved in 'tapping up' a player.