Perhaps a better term would be 'hypothesis' journalism. In this case, the hypothesis being would a top flight English team manager be stupid and greedy enough to come running without being forearmed, on the chance of getting extra money beyond their already well paid job. This particular hypothesis seems to be holding up quite well.
The Sven meets 'Fake Sheikh' episode establishes that, like Pavlov's dogs, they will come running with drool cascading down their chins. This only serves to underline it. I don't think the greed should be the story any more, it's the sheer stupidity of getting caught in something so tin-pot that should be the story. "We came up with the most transparent and lame sting ever and the stupid fecker only fell for it!"
Beats me why these people don't get themselves mic-ed up, or even their own "pinhole" vidcams, before they turn up at these meetings. At least give yourself the chance to review what you may have said to perhaps act well before the hacks make their reveal.
Terrible reporting by the BBC, claiming that the Telegraph has footage of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink allegedly being involved in corruption. No, what they have is Hasselbaink taking part in alleged corruption. Learn how to phrase your arse-covering qualifiers!
New revelation tonight, new manufactured wrongdoing. Not one piece of evidence so far about actual corruption that the paper hasn't invented. Of course I'm not saying it doesn't go on, but this is certainly not watertight proof. Amusing bit on TalkShite earlier on when they mentioned all the Telegraph evidence being sent to the police first. The police? Difficult to say what crime has been committed when the meetings have all been fictitious. And again we're being drip-fed all this, like the Telegraph are holding the football world to ransom.
What strikes me is the sense of entitlement some people in football have. It was at least understandable (though wrong) when managers and players did dodgy things pre 1990s as they were not being paid a life times worth of money per year. Sam Allardyce was supposed to be on around £3m per year plus bonuses. If you earned £100,000 per year it would take 30 years to get that. If you were on the National Average Wage (highest estimate is £30,000 per year) it would take a 100 years and if you were on the London Living Wage (£10 per hr) it would take (on a 40 hr working week) 144 years and 3 months to earn it. Fat Sam was a greedy **** who, despite getting hugely paid for doing his dream job, just had to get his hands on yet more money. The joke is that, firstly, grubbing around for 50k has cost him around £7m and secondly, he apparently got a pay off of £1m from the FA...well that'll really hurt him
Greg Dyke said the BFS took a pay cut to take the England job, FFS, how much were Sunderland paying him?
I am not condoning Alladyce's pursuit of even more money or his inability to keep stum. He is a self confessed idiot. However I despise the Telegraph, which is just an upmarket Daily Mail, and it's methods. It is dishonest and cheap to obtain stories in this way. The News of the World made a living doing it. Alladyce was greedy and stupid the Telegraph were malicious, malignant and cheap.
There's an argument (I'm not a subscriber) that managers like BFS and Pulis are those that deserve to be paid the most in that they guarantee clubs like Sunderland/Bolton/Blackburn/The Spammers and Stoke/Palace/WBA stay with their snouts in the PL trough. Remove them from those clubs and it looks like parachute time. That argument shows exactly what's wrong with the game. Supporters get to watch Pulis' anti-football so that the club's desperate and greedy owners can keep banking the cash. Is it coincidence that, recently, both have been involved in financial scandals born of greed? I think that they believe the argument regarding their worth and see themselves as being under-valued and under-paid. They come from a period when players weren't ridiculously paid and I think they are 'redressing the balance'. It will be good for the game when they've gone. How long before BFS is back in a job? I'll be amazed if he isn't in work by the end of January. Stoke anyone?
The "honeypot" is a perfectly acceptable method. And definitely cheap (high ROI) . From espionage femme fatales, dodgy sheikhs, to IT systems with seemingly flawed security measures. The more you have of it, the less of the "well everyone would do the same if they had the opportunity" mindset you will have in society. To put it in perspective, how much CHEAPER would it have been for the FA to do their own honeypot on Allardyce BEFORE hiring him ??
Their football coverage is better than a lot of newspapers' - which is odd, given their readership prefers cricket and swinger's parties.
It's not perfect and it is certainly not acceptable. I do not like living in a society where entrapment is considered ok. Many people live perfectly decent lives BECAUSE they are not tempted but could easily be tempted. This is a weakness that many humans have and they should be helped to to live with it not tricked into succumbing to it.
Quite. Many of us would likely do things in situations that we would not like to admit to, or perhaps even know we would until the circumstances were met. Milgram managed to get people who were just brought in from the street for an experiment to give "lethal" electric shocks to others (actors) simply by a bit of emotional pressure. And money would probably be more persuasive!
The Stanford Prison experiment is almost equally terrifying. A bit of authority can do funny things to people. The FBI's experiment with Ted Kaczynski is one of the worst examples of it.