From the Guardian
The Stevens inquiry has signed off several of the 39 outstanding transfers as satisfactory since a two-month extension was granted to investigators on October 2.
A number of the eight clubs whose transfer activity remained under suspicion after Lord Stevens' Quest team delivered its last report to the Premier League 56 days ago are understood to have been subsequently passed as clean. That is bound to increase pressure on Premiership administrators to reveal the identities of those whose transfer-market conduct has been declared acceptable.
In a show of solidarity, Premiership clubs have hitherto been voting not to name those who remain under suspicion. But the delivery of Stevens' latest report, due next week, will not in itself bring the matter to a close and that may cause the innocent to demand the end to the current uncertainty surrounding every club.
The new Quest report will carry the firm's findings on the 362 transfers investigated over the past eight months, together with its report for the Premier League about agents' activities, conflicts of interest and all aspects of transfer business. Accompanying this review will be a variety of recommendations for the Premier League to consider.
The Premier League's three-man executive board - the chairman, Dave Richards, the chief executive, Richard Scudamore, and the general secretary, Mike Foster - will meet representatives of Quest before deciding on their own recommendations over how to proceed with the results of the inquiry. Scudamore will take these to the shareholders' board, which is made up of the 20 clubs.
It will be for those clubs to decide how to proceed with the findings involving specific transfers, with several options open to them. If there is sufficient hard evidence of criminality, handing Stevens' dossier to police has not been ruled out.
A second option would be to pass the Quest report to the Football Association's compliance unit for investigation. The third would be to request that Stevens' team conduct a supplementary investigation into the remaining transfers that have not been signed off. With a bill of £800,000 having been run up over the course of the eight-month investigation, it is not yet clear if there will be consensus for the last option. However, Scudamore is keen to avoid any accusations of a whitewash resulting from the inquiry.
Scudamore's determination for the report to be made public remains. He is aware of the potential commercial damage that can be sustained by Premiership clubs tainted by the innuendo surrounding transfer conduct and feels that only a full investigation will end that suspicion.