 |
Press Releases
Bungs in football - Newell tells Panorama: "Those are the people who tried to pay me money"
|
Mike Newell - the football manager who first raised concerns about transfer bungs (illegal payments) in football - has revealed the identity of the agents who tried to offer him a bung to Panorama's Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets, to be screened on BBC ONE tomorrow at 9.00pm.
Newell, the Luton Town manager, identifies Charles Collymore and his unlicensed assistant Mark Wilson.
While watching undercover footage of the programme, Newell realises that he recognises the two agents who offered him a bung, and says: "Those are the people who tried to pay me money."
Newell says he has already reported both these agents to the Football Association.
Charles Collymore is secretly filmed telling the programme: "There's managers out there who take bungs all day long. xxxxx, you know that, takes bungs all day long. We've got xxxx FC, yep all day long."
Collymore adds: "I would say to you comfortably there's six to eight managers we could definitely approach and they'd be up for this, no problem."
The revelations come on the eve of the Premier League's probe into alleged transfer bungs.
Newell tells the BBC in an on-camera interview: "It's great for me to see, to see what I've just seen on the film. It does vindicate me and it does, it does vilify them."
And speaking about bungs he says: "I think it's become a culture in football and it's almost accepted and brushed under the carpet."
Tonight's Newsnight (BBC TWO) will also take up the story involving Belgian first division Club Charleroi, first uncovered during Panorama's investigation: the owners said they were willing to secretly sell the club to football agents for five million Euros.
Further details on Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets - a Panorama investigation - will be released tomorrow.
MB
|
Printable version
