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Bungs - what if its not Wenger, Ferguson, Mourinho, or Benitez, what if its your manager who is guilty?

by Sack the Juggler on September 27th, 2006

Even the very word “bung”, is contaminated with the filth of corruption, and we know that football is full of corruption, from match fixing Italians, to FIFA ticketing scandals, to money grabbing agents, to tapping up, it all goes on and there is nothing we can do about it because no one is prepared to act.  It seems to be an accepted part of the beautiful game.

Mike Newell’s recent allegations, the Lord Stevens enquiry and even the woeful Panorama investigation have all served to highlight what the fans have long suspected, that bungs are rife in football, and we’ve all suspected which managers are guilty of it, but not our own. 

We all suspect those involved are the cheque book managers, who pay millions, way over (what we consider) to be the odds for a player, or the managers who will only buy foreign players from France or Spain as they prefer to deal with the agents that they know, or even the managers who wheel and deal and are constantly buying and selling players and making a take on each one. 

But what if it was our manager?  What if the Lord Stevens enquiry comes out and names half a dozen managers, or even a dozen managers, and one of them is our manager?  What if the enquiry names Benitez, or Redknapp, or Mourinho, or O’Neill, or Moyes, or Coppell, or all of them?  What if a manager that the club and the fans have come to adore, is found guilty of taking a bung? 

Would you stand by him and say, well its rife, its an accepted part of the game, there’s no harm in it, it doesn’t matter, look what he has achieved for the club! Or would you say, get the bastard out, he’s ruining our game, ruining our club, he’s killing it!

Is it acceptable? Is it just a natural state of business, ….or of greed?

With all the money players, agents and managers are on you’d think that it wouldn’t be worth risking it all for a few thousand pounds, but as more and more money flows into football, it seems that those involved want a bigger and bigger slice of the cake.  Managers see players who nearly crash their cars at only being offered £55k a week instead of £60k, agents who illegally push their players every chance they get in order to turn a quick buck, so is it any wonder that they would want a slice of this cake too?

If the manager was going to buy a player anyway, where’s the harm in accepting an unsolicitored £30k backhander from an agent who’s just pocketed a £500k fee for doing nothing?  And next time that manager does a deal, will he be expecting a little bit of the same? If he’s considering two players of equal(ish) ability, which one is he going to choose? The one that gets him a free £30k or the other one?

And if he chooses the one that doesn’t give him a back hander, then maybe he won’t use that agent again, afterall there are thousands of players out there, all desparate to play at this level, or at this club.  And there’s no harm in it is there, the money is not from the club, its from the agent, and he’s already made the money so where is the harm?

But if you go back to that situation where there were two players of equal(ish) ability, what if one would cost twice as much as the other? Or had wages twice as much as the other? And therefore one had a bung that was twice as much as the other? Would the manager taking a bung still be acceptable?

Afterall, there is more money coming into football, so you expect wages to go up anyway, and the club can afford it, its not like its coming out of our pockets is it….?  But what if it is, what if your club has had to push your team’s wages up because other managers are on the take and pushing up all players expectations? 

 What if your season ticket has risen buy 30%, 40% or 50% over the last couple of years?  Is that an acceptable part of the game?  Is it a price worth paying for the entertainment you receive?

Lord Stevens’ findings were originally scheduled to be published in October, although they may be delayed by the Panorama innuendoes.  But if, when they are published, you find that your manager has been guilty of taking bungs, ……what will you do?

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