Soccer

» SimonMelville - Corruption in the EPL

In response to Corruption in the EPL posted by BrentSedo:
It's a strange one -- the world of agents is so remote to the fan on the terraces (or just sat at home in front of the TV) that you take the existence of this sort of thing for granted.

And all the papers say it happens, certain chairmen say it happens (Crystal Palace's Simon Jordan is most vociferous in his hatred for agents) and we know players get "tapped up" as it gets revealed in players auto-biographies.

How damaging is it to football? Hard to say. I have to be honest and say while I detest any sort of corruption or graft, it seems to be taking place between a coterie of wealthy managers, players and agents and not exactly affecting the man on the street. I see it as part of the culture of greed/excess that is now part and parcel of football.

If the bungs were stopped, I can't see the savings passed back to the fans!

Not only is this not new (see the George Graham case from a decade ago), kickbacks happen in all industries and I can't be surprised some venal people in soccer are involved.

The Panorama programme certainly was heavy on talk but didn't show anyone taking a bung, so no surprise that the lawsuits seem to be mounting on a daily basis.

Yesterday, Uefa descibed the culture in football as a "bung jungle". My hope is that the whole affair is known as BUNGLE-GATE -- which would just about sum the whole thing up.

-- posted by SimonMelville