Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 22:14 | 1,057 Views | 7 Comments | Add Comment
The Big Bung!
“That’s right 50K, despatch as agreed”
Football is business now. So, no way you can avoid scandals. This time it is in the Premiership. BBC exposed this ‘bung culture’ in the premiership and says that several managers are involved. Ok, what’s this bung all about?
“Bung” is a British slang term for a bribe, most recently used to refer to illegal payments made in sport to ensure a player will sign for a club
So, if an agent wants to ensure that his client his bought by a club, he pays the manager of the buying club, a bribe that would fix the deal. It all sounds like things associated with mafia, drug-dealing etc. But, let’s get real. There’s so much money in football that these things are unavoidable. This is not to justify the ‘bung culture’; but to understand the reason for its existence.
How are the fans affected by this? I dont see any manager buy a crap player just to pocket his bung. May be the manager gets his scouting done, sees the videos, watches the matches and when he buys him get some pounds from the player’s agent as a ‘token of gratitude’. This is certainly illegal as these are not accounted money and there would be a tax evasion attached to such dealings.
BBC has also exposed some big names in Premiership who have received bungs, notable one being Sam Allardyce, Frank Arnesen and Harry Redknapp. Some say that these exist in football for decades and this is no big discovery.
Goerge Graham, one of the most successful Arsenal manager, was the first to be found guilty in a bung scandal in 1995. During a nine-year stint at Highbury, Graham guided the Gunners to two league titles, two league cups, an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners Cup. Looks like this time, more would be found guilty.
I’m happy that at least this not as stinking as the Serie A match-fixing!
[tags] bung, bribe, Arsenal, Chelsea, Bolton, Sam Allardyce, Frank Arnesen, Harry Redknapp, Serie A, match fixing, scandal, BBC, Panorama [/tags]
7 Comments
1. he_man
2. redseason
“How are the fans affected by this?”
Well, think of it as money that would otherwise stay with the Club. Club A transfers x to Club B. In exchange, 10 million goes the other way. Now, 1 million goes via the selling Club A back to the guilty party. Club B has paid 1 million more for Player X. That 1 million (10%) could have gone into something or someone else. Of course, shareholders also have an interest not to be cheated of money.
“I dont see any manager buy a crap player just to pocket his bung”.
You’ll be surprised. Its often the players that you know nothing about previously . They arrive as a star - and then they disappear. Think of an Ecuadorian player who moved to a club in the South Coast.
You say - “Well, think of it as money that would otherwise stay with the Club”. I doubt. The transfer of money is between the club officials and the player’s agent. I dont think that the club’s money is involved. It is more of a private dealing between two individuals without involving the institutions.
And if the manager is going to buy a player for his bung, then he is running a bigger risk of getting sacked if the transfers dont help him. Wrong judgements in the transfer of players should not always be suspected for a bung.
4. blueblood58
Blue Champion
You are right about George Graham but he has got good work right now working for TV doing match analysis.
Yeah I am quite happy to write for you. You tell me what you want and I will try to write it. BTW how much you payin’ LOL!!
@Blueblood58
Thanks for accepting the ‘zero-wage offer’. Can you please register in this blog. You can find the “Register here” link on top of other website links in the sidebar. Then I would give the ‘author’ access rights so that you can start posting. As your first post, why dont you write about our topic of the poll : 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 given the current set of players and situation?
6. redseason
You wrote: “I dont think that the club’s money is involved. It is more of a private dealing between two individuals without involving the institutions”..
I think that you have missed the point entirely. It is precisely because it is the club’s money that there is such an uproar about the Bung culture.
Do you think that the money an agent gives to a manager to induce a transfer comes out of the agent’s pocket? Ask yourself: where does the agent get the money? From the contract that the player gets for signing for the club.
No one is saying that all bad transfers are dodgy. - I just cited one example where rumours abound.
Well, that’s something we assume. We can also say, the money comes from the agent’s pocket. That’s why all manager’s accused are all from the buying club. And this understanding of mine matches with BBC & The Telegraph.
now we need to review the recent signings to know if there is any suspicious activitity. Anyway, bbc does not have any substantial evidences for these bung cases.
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