Bung To Rights?

David Coon looks at the fallout from the Panorama corruption claims in 2006 in the Guardian.

'Kevin Bond, by walking away from his libel action against the BBC which would have started last week, left unchallenged Panorama's "Football's Dirty Secrets", which in September 2006 broadcast forthright claims of wrongdoing against him and other senior football figures.

'Some in football sought to question the programme's undercover methods and accuse it of containing too little substance for an hour-long documentary but it made some inescapably hard accusations. Most substantially, Panorama showed secretly filmed footage of an agent, Peter Harrison, saying Sam Allardyce would do a deal with him if Harrison agreed to pay the then Bolton manager's son, Craig, who was at the time a licensed agent. The programme alleged that Craig was paid on three Bolton deals, the signings of Tal Ben-Haim, Hide Nakata and Ali Al Habsi, with the payments not having been declared on the official forms to the FA. Panorama asked Craig if his father knew of these payments, Craig said emphatically yes, and Panorama directly accused Sam Allardyce of "having been involved in corrupt transfer deals".

'Bond, while working as Harry Redknapp's assistant manager at Portsmouth, was recorded by the programme in a telephone discussion with Panorama's undercover reporter, Knut Auf Dem Berge. According to a pre-trial judgment in the libel action, Bond was portrayed "expressing interest in receiving a bung" and Panorama also alleged "there are strong grounds to suspect [Bond] accepted 'bungs' or other corrupt payments" in the past.

'The programme straightforwardly accused Frank Arnesen, Chelsea's chief scout, of "tapping up" the Middlesbrough youngster Nathan Porritt by discussing with Harrison, acting as Porritt's agent, the £150,000 Chelsea might pay Porritt over three years if he joined Chelsea.

'None of those people, or anybody else in the programme, has legal proceedings outstanding against the BBC, although they all denied any wrongdoing and Sam Allardyce said days afterwards that the matter was with his lawyers.

'The reason the FA has made no public announcements and held off taking action is understood to be that it is waiting until the conclusion of HM Revenue and Customs' investigation into alleged underpayment of tax from football transfers. That began as a City of London Police investigation the police consistently described as into football "corruption", with dramatic dawn raids on the houses of Redknapp and the agent Willie McKay. Redknapp successfully sued the police for conducting the arrest unlawfully and the judge, Lord Justice Latham, described the case as follows.

'"It was suspected that [Harry Redknapp] as manager of [Portsmouth], together with the managing director Peter Storrie, and the club's then owner and chairman Milan Mandaric, may have conspired together to make disguised payments to a player, Amdy Faye, using the agent William McKay to receive payments offshore."