Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Dirty Game Needs to be Cleaned Up

I got home this evening to watch the Panorama special on football bungs. To be honest I was expecting a damp squib. Not a bit of it. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce copped the wrap. On the face of it, he should be suspended with immediate effect from his position pending a full FA investigation. I reckon this is just the tip of a very cool and sharp iceberg.

However, I thought the case against Mr Harold Redknapp was less than convincing. Many of us Hammers fans have always had some suspicions about some of the transfer dealings Harry conducted at Upton Park. £2.5 million for Titi Camara. Need I say more?

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought this post was going to be about Mark Oaten.

Curly said...

Do you mean that the Hammers weren't paid to take that racist mugger Bowyer back?

Anonymous said...

Compared to Politics football is squeeky clean.

Anonymous said...

Redknapp's well known for it. He's a high earner, but have you checked out his pad on Sandbanks in Poole....would need a lot of bungs to pay for that

Anonymous said...

Wasn't as great as I was expecting. Only naming 2 out of the 18 showed a lack of courage. Allardyce copped it because his son is an agent and he's an easy target. Will be interesting to see what happens now.

Admire your loyalty with Redknapp Iain. Can't help feeling it may be blind though.

Croydonian said...

The walrus in trouble? - Excellent, best news all day.

ian said...

*cough* Tevez, Mascherano. Nothing dodgy going on there, is there?

Anonymous said...

The programmme was worse than a damp squib. None of the high profile culprits got their comeuppance. And few of the lower profile ones did either (depite a rather mysterious managerial resignation at the end of last season and a more recent mysterious managerial dismissal).

I really like the Sun's claim that its scoop of Spetember 8th (last) precipitated Panorama's revelations. The Beeb had only been working on the case for 18 months and virtually every obstacle was thrown in its way to stop the show from airing (which was why it was so piss poor).

Nothing to do with Sky's place men at the FA of course (whom The Sun would quite naturally want to defend).

I think Stevens has got his two jolly swagmen (because that's all he's going to get) the rest of the crew will just disappear into the woods.

Leaving the fans to pick up the tab...

Anonymous said...

I really don't understand why anyone at all is even vaguely surprised that football is bent. Hello? Has anyone yet come across a field where that kind of cash changes hands and everyone is squeaky clean? Course not. Did no one ever question before why it is that premiership managers have more assets than the Queen?

Anonymous said...

Well, what a surprise. Who'd have thought it possible?! I wonder if they can organise peerages too...

Anonymous said...

Nothing much will happen. There's too much money and the FA won't rock their own boat.

Football's got beaucoup corruption but the average fan just wants his team to win and won't care about dodgy deals, bungs, match fixing, insider betting and pharmaceutical doping. Just so long as the team wins, the punter won't care, despite their money being wasted and the law of the land being flouted.

Anonymous said...

I am not a footie fan so I sit here and say so what! Football does not employ the brightest sparks that walked the planet, so why not just let a free market exist and let people do what they want to.

Does anyone get hurt by it?

Anonymous said...

Copped the wrap? Did he do something involving clingfilm? Or did you mean rap?

Anonymous said...

what a waste of an hour.

allardyce looked guilty as sin (makes a change from just looking ugly as sin) and anyone who knows anything about football knows that redknapp has a reputation for that sort of thing...

They bottled out of naming & shaming EVERY other individual concerned, they might as well have bothered not showing it at all.

Of course corruption is rife but that programme was nothing but bluster - what a waste of an hour of my life!

Reactionary Snob said...

Is it really surprising that the two most-active managers when it comes to transfers are up to their necks in it?

RS

Anonymous said...

How Football Works:
Glenn Roeder apparently confided to one of his staff that 'Arry "was a facking disgrace" because of his willingness to take bungs. Yet, he then went and hired Redknapp's Pompey bag-carrier Kevin Bond - who then had to miss NUFC's trip to Latvia while he consulted his lawyers! Great isnt it?

The Druid said...

Who cares? Football is a game (not sport) for little boys of all ages. How can it be a sport when matches are thrown by players who frankly should win Oscars for their acting? The clubs are not proper businesses. Their practices include more "taps", "bungs" and "leaks" than my plumber sees in a year. Its only because its the modern equivalent of Caesar's bread and circuses that nothing gets done.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps certain names were not mentioned because they had 'bought off the BBC'?

Only joking! Honest! Until you pay me £100,000 that is, then I'll be serious!

Anonymous said...

Im more concerned about the BBC using KGB surveilance techniques and then putting on its "show trial programs" than any alleged corruption in football.Who do they think they are?

Anonymous said...

Elliot Ness would not be able to crack open this cabal of corrupt crooks that run football. All are implicated. Biggest offender FA. Sky investigate this? Nah in a couple of months the whole thing will be forgotten. The structure,top to bottom,supports corrupt practice. Funny how many managers have sons in the agent business.Look at player turnover at clubs associated with Redknapp. Beautiful game? Give me tiddlywinks.

Anonymous said...

Admittedly Big Sam didn't come out of it well, but suspension?! Come off it. Once there's some actual evidence maybe, but in the meantime I believe the phrase is "presumed innocent". And I'm not saying that just because he played for Preston. Though that's a pretty good reason.

Johnny Norfolk said...

I dont think we should jump to conclusions until an investigation has been carried out, especialy from the BBC as they have their own agenda and you cannot rely on their reporting like you used to.

Anonymous said...

What a pisspoor so-called 'investigation' by the BBC. Despite claiming repeatedly that corruption is rife, the reporters failed to show a single example of a bung being taken. All they had were a few sleazy agents bigging themselves up to potential clients. I'm amazed the Beeb's lawyers signed off on this, esp as most of the allegations were made by agents offered a financial incentive by undercover reporters! No newspaper would dare print this rubbish on such flimsy 'evidence'. The Beeb must now be hoping Lord Stevens's inquiry will come to their rescue when the defamation writs come flying in.