Sam Allardyce - Corruption Allegations

Corruption Allegations

On 19 September 2006, Allardyce, and his son, Craig, were implicated in a BBC Panorama documentary for taking "bungs" (backhanders) from agents for signing certain players. Two agents, Teni Yerima and Peter Harrison, were secretly filmed, each separately claiming that they had paid Allardyce through his son. Allardyce denies ever taking, or asking for, a "bung".

The then Bolton manager was implicated in an exposé of the football transfer market. The programme, called Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets, was aired on the same night that Bolton beat Walsall 3–1 in the Football League Cup, so he missed the original showing. As a result of the allegation, Allardyce refused to speak to the BBC. While he also stated he was going to sue the broadcaster in order to clear his name, Allardyce failed to issue libel proceedings, allowing the year-long window following the show's broadcast to expire.

The final report of the Stevens inquiry published in June 2007 expressed concerns regarding the involvement of Craig Allardyce in a number of transactions. "The inquiry remains concerned at the conflict of interest that it believes existed between Craig Allardyce, his father Sam Allardyce—the then manager at Bolton—and the club itself." In 2013, Allardyce received "substantial", but undisclosed, damages from former Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean. In 2011, Kean had been recorded in a bar in Hong Kong falsely alleging that Allardyce had been sacked from his post at Blackburn Rovers because he was a crook.