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Tuesday, 19 September 2006, 11:07 GMT 12:07 UK

Team manager names 'bung' agent

Why I went undercover

Luton Town manager Mike Newell A football manager has named an agent who he says attempted to bribe him.

Luton Town's Mike Newell says freelance football agent Charles Collymore offered him a cut of a player's fee that he tried to negotiate.

Mr Newell told BBC One's Panorama programme, due to be aired on Tuesday, that he rejected the offer and reported the agent to the Football Association.

Mr Collymore denies offering or accepting any bungs, which are illegal payments made during transfer dealings.

Mr Collymore, who was secretly filmed for the BBC programme, Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets, said he knew eight Premiership managers who would accept bungs.

He made the allegation to Uefa-licensed coach Knut Auf dem Berge, who worked undercover for Panorama for nine months on an investigation into corruption in football.

Mr Collymore says he gave Mr Auf dem Berge false information because he was suspicious of his agenda.

Mr Newell met the Football Association in January to discuss his allegations that transfer bungs are rife in football.

He claimed that "a lot of people involved with the agents and doing the deals are taking back-handers".

Shortly afterwards, the then England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told the News of the World newspaper that three unnamed English Premiership clubs were riddled with corruption.

The alleged corruption related to illegal payments in transfer deals.

In March, Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was appointed as head of a probe into alleged transfer bungs in the Premier League.

He is looking at irregular payments in transfer deals made since 1 January 2004 and he is expected to publish his findings within weeks.



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Related to this story:
Ex-police chief leads bungs probe (03 Mar 06 |  Eng Prem )
League chief defends bung inquiry (25 Jan 06 |  Football )
Burning issues (31 Jul 06 |  Football )
Football in denial? (12 Jan 06 |  Football )
The worst scandal of them all (25 Jul 06 |  Europe )

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