David O?Leary has said that he has never encountered it in his career. Arsene Wenger has also, rather predictably, seen nothing of the phenomenon during his time in English football and had little to say regarding the matter. Two high profile managers at two of the biggest clubs in one of the richest football leagues in the world and they have seemingly had no experience whatsoever of a bung culture permeating throughout English football. Forgive my sceptism but in the wake of Luton Town manager Mike Newell?s revelations last week of the depth of the bung problem in the game I find it highly suspicious that no senior club manager in England seems to have come across this problem or have any idea in which direction to point the finger of blame for allowing it to continue.

Of course there is no implication that the current managers of Arsenal and Aston Villa would have any first hand knowledge of such goings on but their categorical denials of ever having encountered anyone involved in either giving or taking bungs seems to set the standard for all other top chairmen, managers and players to plead the 5th and not be the first to step away from the football version of the mafia?s omerta ? the unspoken code of silence that stops the problem being outed and the perpetrators sufficiently dealt with by the courts.

Since George Graham was sacked by Arsenal and banned from football for twelve months back in 1995 for taking a ?425,000 bung from rogue agent Rune Hauge for the transfers of Pal Lydersen and John Jensen, there has a deafening silence from within football to out further recipients and payers of bungs to help sweeten transfers at all levels of the game. While the charges against the late Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough, who according to Sir Alan Sugar allegedly ?liked a bung?, were dropped due to his ill health, his assistant Ronnie Fenton was given a slap on the wrist and suspended. A seemingly better planned investigation by the FA into 20 of John Gregory?s transfer dealings during his time as manager of Aston Villa was recently dropped, the reasons unknown.

The FA and Premier League have been quick to pay lip service to clearing out the rogue agents who Sir Alan Sugar has said he believes are orchestrating the whole sordid scheme but there are few within the game or influential onlookers who actually believe there will be significant action taken as a result of any investigation and practically zero chance of any custodial sentences being handed out as a result.

The fact that the latest investigation will need a more high profile informant than the courageous Mike Newell is obvious if it is to have any likelihood of succeeding in it?s proposed mission but the odds of finding anyone in a high enough position who would consider putting their own head on the block is slim. There are far too many men in the upper echelons of English football with far too much to lose if the truth is to actually come out and in such circumstances the proverbial drawbridge is usually brought up.

As obviously sickened by the questionable morality at the heart of English football as Mike Newell is, one has to wonder as to how much his managerial career will now suffer as his colleagues at clubs around the country find that their lucrative counter-culture is put under threat by his allegations and whether the FA and the Premier League actually have the bottle and the will to do anything about the scourge at all levels of the game.

Will Mike Newell?s intervention lead to a root and branch clean up as most not directly involved would call for or will we just see another expensive round of sweeping it under the carpet much like the failed Premier League bung inquiry in the mid to late ?90s? For a successful outcome maybe some of those top managers and agents should look to their hearts before they think of their own back pockets.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2006 at 10:43 pm and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.