Daily Telegraph: Football for Sale?

Sam Allardyce used his position as England manager to negotiate a £400,000 deal and offered advice to businessmen on how to “get around” FA rules on player transfers, The Telegraph can disclose.

Before he had even held his first training session as England’s new head coach, Allardyce negotiated a deal with men purporting to represent a Far East firm that was hoping to profit from the Premier League’s billion-pound transfer market.

He agreed to travel to Singapore and Hong Kong as an ambassador and explained to the “businessmen” how they could circumvent Football Association rules which prohibit third parties “owning” players.

Unbeknown to Allardyce, the businessmen were undercover reporters and he was being filmed as part of a 10-month Telegraph investigation that separately unearthed widespread evidence of bribery and corruption in British football. that's a small part of the article, lots more at the link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...dyce-for-sale/

 

Whoooooaahh! Another nail in the coffin of the England team. Corrupt manager. Brilliant.

 

If true there's no way he'll be able to keep the England managers job. However he was miraculously cleared of any wrong doing in 2006 after the Panorama report so we'll see.

 

Oh dear. On the plus side the vacancy is there for Adkins again.

 

Yay, British media always trying to screw someone over. Never changes, dirty bastards.

 

Counterpoint: every public official should be subjected to at least one Abscam-style operation every couple years.

 

Yay, let's learn to trust no body.

 

Let's learn to trust nobody who is offering you a bribe or seeking your assistance skirting the rules of the organization employing you, indeed!

 

The only thing that surprises me about this story, is that none of these undercover meetings with Allardyce took place in a Harvester

 

Good old Sam, the Trump of football management.

 

Is this not the same as entrapment?

 

That's only relevant if its the Police doing it. Not the media. There won't be any legal proceedings against Allardyce, I suspect in his contract, the FA have a get out clause if he causes embarrassment etc.

 

It's uncool to make fun of Hodgson's speech, I guess. But the papers have been doing it for years.

I don't think it is so bad to criticize Hodgson for England's performance (considering everyone else did, and Hodgson got sacked. It's certainly embarrassing and awkward having insulted your predecessor, but I don't know that it's corrupt or anything.

Not choosing players who aren't playing? Probably a lot of managers feel that way.

I suppose the smoking gun here is the third party agent thing. I don't have a problem with third party agents, so I don't car. But if I did, and they were banned from the league, then buying the agent out so the club legally has full ownership seems perfectly fine to me. It's "getting around" the rules, I suppose... if "getting around" means "complying."

I mean, English clubs are paying massive agent fees to acquire players. It's pretty much the same thing. You pay an agent 10m to get the player to sign. Or you pay 10m to buy out an agent's stake in the player. As long as the player isn't third party owned while playing in England.

From what I've seen, it's really more his attitude and seeming disdain for people he works with-- other managers, agents, coaches, the FA-- that's bad. It will make it hard for him going forward and I wouldn't blame the FA if they sacked him for this. But I'm not morally outraged at corruption or anything, unless there was a part of the audio I missed.

 

If there is a manager out there who doesn't know how to "make a few quid" on the side, I would be shocked.
No surprise to me...where there is money there is dirt

 

Had I still cared about the state of the England team, I should have worn black the day Allardyce was appointed. However, can someone explain the difference between "getting round the rules" in this case compared to, say, David Cameron's father "getting round the rules" in relation to taxation?

Allardyce should be sacked for being Allardyce. No further evidence should be needed.

 

Whether you are morally outraged or not (and to be honest I am), he must be sacked due to his clear stupidity. Talking so off the hip to a bunch of strangers having just become England Manager. Every element of life these days seems to have gone down the bog hole.

 

What an idiot. Ignoring entrapment, only a fool would do anything like this when he has landed the job of his dreams. Every job offer should be approved by the FA...and alarm bells should ring if you know the job would never be approved by the FA.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

My point is it should be illegal.

 

FOOTBALL FOR SALE | What the Telegraph investigation will reveal
The Telegraph began investigating corruption in English football last year after receiving information that specific managers, officials and agents were taking or receiving cash payments to secure player transfers. Over the coming days the Telegraph will detail how:

• The assistant manager of a high-profile football club accepted a £5,000 cash “bung”
• Ten managers were named by players’ agents as taking bribes to fix player transfers
• Two well-known managers discussed becoming ambassadors for the same fictitious firm as Sam Allardyce
• Another high-profile manager admitted his players broke FA rules by betting on their own games but he failed to report it
• A senior figure at a Premier League club helped undercover reporters to formulate a plan to bribe managers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...ation-england-manager-sam-allardyce-for-sale/