Bung inquiry blows whistle on five clubs
Five clubs named in Lord Stevens inquiry
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Friday, 15, Jun 2007 10:20
Five Premiership clubs have all been named by Lord Stevens' inquiry into illegal payments in football transfers.
The former Metropolitan police commissioner's Quest inquiry has been unable to clear 17 transfers involving Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United and Portsmouth, due to lack of cooperation by 15 agents.
"There is one other transfer that the inquiry has been asked by another regulatory authority not to specify in order that its investigations should not be prejudiced by revealing the identity of the transfer. The inquiry, of course, is compelled to respect this request," a statement said.
After 15 months, Lord Stevens has made the findings of his investigation into football's alleged bung culture public.
Three managers, Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp, Newcastle's Sam Allardyce - formerly of Bolton - and ex-Magpies manager Graeme Souness, are also individually named in the report.
No charges will be directly levelled against individuals or clubs named in today's report, but Lord Stevens has urged the relevant authorities, either the Football Association or Fifa to launch its own inquiries.
"There is no evidence of any irregular payments to club officials or players and they are identified here only as a consequence of the outstanding issues the inquiry has with the agents identified," an inquiry statement said.
'Super agent' Pini Zahavi is criticised by the Quest inquiry for failing to fully cooperate with investigators by not disclosing bank statements.
The transfers that the inquiry was unable to sign off on involving Zahavi, who played a key role in Roman Abramovich's takeover of Chelsea, include the moves of Petr Cech and Didier Drogba to the FA Cup winners and Yakubu to Middlesbrough from Portsmouth.
Newcastle manager Allardyce's son Craig is also named in the report, which says it has found "no evidence of irregular payments" but is still unable to clear transfers involve four players brought to the Reebok stadium when his father was still in charge.
"The inquiry remains concerned at the conflict of interest that it believes existed between Craig Allardyce, his father Sam Allardyce, the then manager at Bolton Wanderers, and the club itself," a statement explained.
Regarding Newcastle, Quest says it cannot clear the signings of Turkish international Emre, Jean Alain Boumsong and Amady Faye, adding that the testimony of Souness was inconsistent with that of Kenneth Shepherd - son of Newcastle owner Freddy.
"Many lessons have been learned and strict adherence to and enforcement of the recommendations should ensure that the game and the transfer market can proceed in an untainted and transparent manner," Lord Stevens commented.
"Finally, and as you are aware, we have cooperated with certain authorities and will continue to provide them with assistance for their ongoing enquiries when requested to do so."
Newcastle are the first club to respond to the publication of the inquiry's findings, and the north-east outfit notes that its "officials have done nothing wrong and have at all times offered their full cooperation, willingly providing full access to all documentation and information requested by the inquiry team".
"The club firmly supports the inquiry and calls on those agents referred to in the report to assist the inquiry in resolving their outstanding queries as soon as possible."
Transfers 'uncleared' by Quest.
1 Collins Mbesuma - Kaizer Chiefs to Portsmouth (2005)
2 Yakubu - Portsmouth to Middlesbrough (2005)
3 Fabio Rochemback - Sporting to Middlesbrough (2005)
4 Didier Drogba - Marseilles to Chelsea (2004)
5 Petr Cech - Rennes to Chelsea (2004)
6 Ali al-Habsi - Lyn Oslo to Bolton (2003)
7 Tal Ben Haim - Maccabi Tel Aviv to Bolton (2004)
8 Blessing Kaku - Maccabi Tel Aviv to Bolton (2004)
9 Julio Correa - Real Sociedad to Bolton (2004)
10 Albert Luque - Deportivo La Coruna to Newcastle (2005)
11 Emre - Inter Milan to Newcastle (2005)
12 Jean Alain Boumsong - Rangers to Newcastle (2005)
13 Amady Faye - Portsmouth to Newcastle (2005)
14 Benjani Mwaruwari - Auxerre to Portsmouth (2006)
15 Aliou Cisse - Portsmouth to Sedan (2006)
16 Michael Essien - Lyon to Chelsea (2005)
17 One unknown transfer.