FA charges agent and suspends another

Soccer agent Charles Collymore has been charged with a breach of Football Association rules, while another agent, Saif Rubie, …

Soccer agent Charles Collymore has been charged with a breach of Football Association rules, while another agent, Saif Rubie, has had his licence suspended.

A third agent, Ian Elliott, has been warned about his future conduct in a series of disciplinary decisions announced by the ruling body on the FA's website this afternoon.

Collymore featured prominently in a recent BBC Panorama programme, in which he bragged that he could convince a number of managers to sign players in return for incentives.

The Association of Football Agents (AFA) today promised to open their files to help with the Stevens inquiry into football corruption - but warned they cannot make non-members co-operate with the investigation.

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Former London police commissioner John Stevens revealed yesterday that only 65 out of 150 agents had responded to his requests for co-operation and said he may use the FA's powers of inquiry to get access to agents' bank accounts.

The association only have 80 of the 280 licensed agents among their members and Mel Stein, secretary and legal advisor to the AFA, said they had no power to force the others to co-operate.

Stein, who wants all agents to be obliged to join a body such as the AFA, said: "Our association has already promised to provide details of any transactions requested by Lord Stevens.

"We had a meeting involving all the major agencies and it was unanimously agreed that no-one had anything to hide and would co-operate.

"We feel it is important that this inquiry is a rigorous as possible but there are a number of other agents, many who may only have been involved in one or two transfers during the period under investigation, over which we have no authority."

Agents may find themselves charged with misconduct if they refuse to reveal details of financial transactions.

Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner who is leading the bungs inquiry, said his team may use FA rules to force agents to open their accounts for inspection.

Stevens looked into all 362 transfers that took place in the Premier League between January 1 2004 to January 31 2006, and announced yesterday that 39 out of the 362 transfers, involving eight clubs, will be investigated further over the next two months.

The identities of the eight clubs involved and the 39 transfers are being kept secret but if they are deemed to have involved illegal payments then Stevens will pass details to the Premier League, FA and if necessary the police.