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ARTICLE · 06 OCTOBER 2016

Bribery And The Beautiful Game: A Typology

Reed Smith (Worldwide)
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It will have saddened many people to read further allegations of wrongdoing in English football.

United KingdomMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Eoin O'Shea
Eoin O'Shea
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It will have saddened many people to read further allegations of wrongdoing in English football. The story, based on classic secret recording methods, was broken by The Daily Telegraph and has been picked up by the entire national and international media.

We have written about this subject before, in 2013 and again in 2015, when ex-player Delroy Facey was one of the first offenders prosecuted under the Bribery Act 2010. This time the allegations relate to managers and player—agents at the very top, in the English Premier League.

Key Allegations

It's useful to split the main types of alleged behaviour into categories:

  • The first is giving gifts, usually money, to managers so as to persuade them to sign particular players for their club. Let's call these 'transfer bungs'.

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