No more shady transfers. The Football Association had appointed Quest, a forensic intelligence company helmed by former London police chief Lord Stevens, to conduct an audit of league transfers, beginning with January’s transfer window. The audit will also extend into this summer’s dealings.
Quest has collaborated with the FA over the past year to investigate “bungs” - bribes linked to transfers. The investigation revealed little evidence of widespread corruption in the English Premier League game but did highlight certain suspicious deals and poor level transparency in many clubs’ handling of transactions running into millions of pounds.
FA’s director of governance Jonathan Hall said: “This transfer audit is a different undertaking to their previous inquiry for the Premier League. It will focus specifically on reviewing the FA’s processes in respect of the new Agents Regulations, assessing compliance with FA Rules and identifying any areas of poor practice within the industry.”
The FA have also set up a “whistleblower” telephone line to report any possible irregularities with transfer deals.
The announcement was made on the same day as reports of agents fees earned between July 1 and December 31 2007 are published. In total, the report says, League clubs paid 7.9 million pounds to agents, up from the 6.2 million spent in the same months of 2006. The 72 Football League clubs were involved in 1,913 transfers in the six months from July to December compared to 1,795 the year before.
Agents are not averse to making dodgy deals to fatten their wallets. Look at Anelka, his agents have benefited a lot during his career. With more cash swirling around in the Premier League, this is a timely reminder that the FA is serious about weeding out corruption.
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