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BBC reports illegalities around Premier League

A documentary for BBC reports that Bolton coach Sam Alardyce and his son Craig have accepted illegal payments for player trades. The program secretly filmed three agents saying that Allardyce took kickbacks to ease the movement of players to and from his Premiership club in northern England. The agents have since said they weren`t speaking seriously. Allardyce and his son, who allegedly accepted the kickback for his father, both denied the accusations to the BBC.

The BBC came out with the story two weeks before a preliminary report on a probe into the transfer system around the Premier League will be completed. It is believed that kickbacks are quite standard around the league. FIFA is conducting its own activity to improve financial transparency in the sport.

The Allardyce son says on the program that he got 50,000 pounds for arranging a 2004 trade of defender Tal Ben Haim to Bolton. He was banned at the time from arranging transactions and his father supposedly knew about the deals. Chelsea too is accused of illegally negotiating the acquisition of a youth team player from Middlesbrough. In this case a larger sum, of about 150,000 pounds was involved.