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About 50 transfers out of 362 involving Premiership clubs investigated by the Stevens inquiry have raised suspicions among investigators. They are understood to have uncovered examples of players moving to or from Premiership clubs in which some of the transfer fee disappeared, or an agent was paid an unusually large commission, or one particular agent conducted a noticeable proportion of a club's dealings. Many of these deals are thought to involve five clubs. There is likely to be a second stage of the investigation which will take several more months.
I was shut in a schloss in Germany without television, E mail or newspapers when the Panorama bungs investigation was screened and was only able to watch it after my return to the UK. In many ways it did not live up to the hype that preceded it. What one saw was a number of relatively fringe individuals in the game making what might well have been exaggerated allegations of their ability to 'fix' things with managers. It was implied that the practices occurred well beyond the two managers named, but details of the clubs and individuals concerned were bleeped out, although pressure is mounting on the BBC to hand over all its evidence to the FA. There have been two kinds of reaction. One has been a closing of ranks within football, exemplified by Arsene Wenger's comments about a 'mediaeval witch hunt'. The other has been various commentators who don't like football jumping on the bandwagon to attack the game and using all kinds of irrelevant and anecdotal evidence. The programme might have been more impressive if it had not been so reliant on entrapment techniques, although the plan to hand over a suitcase of money failed. Rather than generalised assertions, legally verifiable evidence of improper conduct is required and the Stevens enquiry is best placed to provide that.
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