Gordon: Regulations needed to tackle bungs

Corruption in football can only be eradicated by people from within the game who have first-hand experience, according to the agent of England manager Steve McClaren.

Colin Gordon believes the very underhand nature of bungs means the games law-makers will never truly get to grips with the problem because they do not how it works or how widespread it is.

“Spare me those silly regulations from people who don’t know what goes on,” he said.

“It’s time for a poacher to turn gamekeeper. Someone who knows how to regulate it because they know how and what goes on. Some of the people getting involved haven’t got a clue. The administrators suddenly jumping on the bandwagon are laughable.

“The experts, the real experts, get ignored. I’ve been in this game all my life and I’m still waiting for someone to ask me a question.

“They might be scared by what they find out, mind. It is something you can’t prove and it is a waste of time and energy trying to do it. The game does not want to embarrass itself by lifting up the carpet and showing what’s been swept underneath.

“You will never catch a manager out talking directly about it. There will be a line that you detect in a conversation and you immediately know where it is heading.

“I’ve had that and pretended to be deaf and dumb for the next few minutes and talk about something else. It’s never referred to again. But you know it’s there.”

The fall-out from last week‘s BBC Panorama programme into corruption is still being felt and Gordon, who also represents Arsenal’s Theo Walcott, believes it is now time to make a stand.

He told the Wolverhampton Express & Star: “We need to draw a line under it and prevent it from happening any more.”

The Lord Stevens inquiry, launched by the Premier League, into alleged bung payments is due to report next month.

The Premier League and Football Association have also launched a joint investigation into the claims made by the programme.

Gordon claimed the practice of ‘bung-taking’ is rife in the game and is a “very sophisticated business”.

“If I buy a player from eastern Europe and find he is valued at £2m (€2.9m) by his club I say: ‘I can sell him for £5m (€7.4m) in England’. The club get £500,000 (€740,000) but the other £2.5m (€3.7m) makes its way into a separate account,” he said.

“Since the Premiership began, I would estimate that tens of millions of pounds has gone out of the game this way.

“We’re not talking about the £500,000 (€740,000) bungs, or the old brown paper envelope stuffed with a few notes. We’re talking about millions upon millions. It is a very sophisticated business. It’s cleverly disguised.

“It’s accepted abroad. We pretend we are holier than thou. But I’ve spoken to people over there and the English game is considered the ‘dirty man of Europe’. We are the worst – and it shouldn’t be accepted.

“I can’t argue with the public seeing us as the scum of the earth.”