AuthorJeffEyesRimmer The grubby world of football has been thrust into the spotlight again this past week after the drip fed revelations from the UK newspaper Telegraphs investigation on corruption within the English game. It really shouldn't be a surprise to any of us that this is the case. Cast your mind back and it wasn't too long ago that the presidents of FIFA and UEFA were being walked out due to their own indiscretions. Or a little further back, the sting operation in Switzerland and the FIB looking into the financial irregularities of FIFA within the US. Why should anyone think the UK be any different if the heads of the game, allegedly, enjoy the kickbacks and bribes? The newspaper initially came under a bit of flak for the investigation; Allardyce himself said he had been caught in an entrapment operation. Now while his judgement can be questioned in why he was even meeting with these strangers it is important to look at the full conversation as well. Big Sam did indicate that you couldn’t offer cash anymore to players, managers and owners anymore. I would recommend reading the full transcript.
My football partner in crime wrote about the sacking of Sam Allardyce from his dream job as England manager earlier this week and while people debate about whether Big Sam being removed was the correct decision it appears that it was but the tip of the iceberg. Initially it did appear to be an entrapment exercise to vilify the new England manager, however the recent developments suggest that Allardyce was but a very small part of a much larger issue and he was just caught up in a larger investigation. At the time of writing this article, my own club Cardiff are being investigated for an unusual transfer involving West Ham and the loan move of Ravel Morrison. This came out quite early and it appears that the Bluebirds found something amiss with the transfer as well but neglected to tell anyone about it, the fools. More startling though are the recorded video conversations with various high profile coaches in the game released by the newspaper. Already, after only a few days’ employees at clubs QPR, Barnsley, Leeds and Southampton have been implicated. The Barnsley assistant coach allegedly took a bung for a transfer and it appears the Southampton assistant was prepared to provide information on players for cash too. Barnsley was swift in sacking the coach in light of the allegations. It will be interesting to see the approach of QPR. Their manager, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, was allegedly caught in the operation but it appears from the viewing that he was prepared to agree to speak at a meeting rather than anything unsavoury. In a press release by QPR they indicated that it was quite normal for managers to be requested to talk and give speeches. Similar in many ways to what Big Sam said. QPR appear to be standing by their manager at this stage. Was anyone surprised but the comments made by the Leeds owner? When is Cellino not controversial? Further revelations are inevitably to come for high profile managers, coaches and potentially even players. Stan Collymore indicated that he had seen the named list, apparently, and it will change the English game forever. Whether Collymore is just pandering to his Twitter followers or whether he has indeed seen the list of people implicated remains to be seen but the investigation has already resulted in reverberations at the highest level. The British sporting minister had previously told the English FA to get their house in order or face losing funding. It appears that they have failed in that task, so much so the FA has been told to appear in front of ministers in October to discuss the corruption charges. Taking bungs is certainly not a new thing in football, George Graham, former Arsenal manager was sacked in the 1995. The amount he took was funnily enough $400k, the same amount Big Sam was offered. The difference from then to now is the scale of money. When Graham was sacked he was on an annual salary of $300k, so the $400k offered to him doubled his salary and while to a person in the street that was still a vast some of money, you can almost see why he took the money. In comparison, Arsene Wenger, who replaced Graham, is now reportedly on $11 million a year. The scales are different at the highest level nowadays. While the headlines will be dominated by the higher profile names and clubs that may end up being implicated by this investigation, lower down the football pyramid should be looked at in more detail, potentially in even greater detail. As shown by the Barnsley coach allegedly taking $5k, the lower down the football the more that level of money can provide a boost to a person’s lifestyle. That $5k might be pocket change to a manager or player in the EPL but to a League 2 coach that could help pay for various things, especially in an industry that is trigger happy when it comes to your job. How tempted would you be to take that extra bit of cash to help with the mortgage if you could lose your job at the drop of a hat? The question becomes, how far does this corruption reach? We may never know the true extent of the corruption or all the names involved but it is certainly a step in the right direction for the game. Criminal proceedings will like begin, the Bribery Act will likely be looked at in the UK and potentially further afield. A club in Belgium, that hasn’t been named yet, but was willing to try to circumvent the third party ownership rules, has been implicated as well. Again the world is wondering when with football clean up its act? Can it even do so alone? If bringing the issues in front of MPs and the police starts the process to punish individuals then what further can be done in the game? The Stoke chairman indicated that a 10% cap on agent fees be introduced to reduce the incentive, I struggle to see how you can implement that sort of initiative but worth looking into. I think a full transparency of transfers is needed, a logged and easy to access international database for all transfers be built and implemented. While there is something similar in place at the moment used by FIFA it is not taken up by hardly any national organisations, Holland have recently been trialling it. The database could be easily audited then and money accounted for. Potentially barring entry into club competitions or even World Cups if not used could be the incentive to make transfers transparent. Clubs will argue that it is commercial confidence and that the way they do business might give unfair advantage to others but clearly something is not right in the game when an agent can (reportedly) receive $20million as part of a deal. That deal was Paul Pogba to Manchester Utd. As cynical as it sounds I think you need to use money as a way to push clubs and personal in the right direction. Hitting clubs in the pockets and removing potential TV and sponsorship money would likely do this. How you would go about it I don’t know and there are likely too many people and too much money invested to make sweeping changes. While there are rules there will always be someone to try to get round them to give themselves an advantage, that’s human nature, but it shouldn’t stop us from trying to clean up the game will love so much. The days of the game being a working man’s game are long gone but something needs to be done to prevent disillusionment. This latest run of corruption could be the straw that finally broke the camel’s back, lose the fans and the game will never be the same and while it is unlikely we will ever go back to the dark days of the 1980s football fan disillusionment will be footballs loss and other codes gain. |
AuthorsJust Some Fans Writing About Football. Archives
June 2018
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