In January 2006 Mike Newell, the Luton Town manager at the time, was asked a harmless question about his transfer plans and the effects of his answer are reverberating around the game. “A club director offered me a sweetener - a bribe to sell him one of our players,” Newell said. “Agents have offered me cuts of transfer deals. I haven’t got a long list to present to the FA, but there are instances I do know about.”

Newell likes to talk. Football journalists have always known that if you asked the former Luton Town manager a straight question you were likely to receive a straight answer. Newell was not like other managers. He said what he liked and it is no surprise that the 42-year-old former Everton forward has struggled to find a job since he talked himself out of one at Luton in March.

Without Newell’s words there would have been no Stevens inquiry, no police raids, no Panorama investigation and no arrests. Days after making his claims, Newell was summoned to the FA’s headquarters in Soho Square, where he was greeted by a media scrum. He left by the back door after spilling the beans on the pervasive bung culture that he said was infecting the game.

The FA issued a short statement after the two-hour meeting. The sport’s governing body in England would “reflect” on what Newell had said. Two months later the FA showed its teeth and Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was appointed to head the Premier League’s bung inquiry.

Expert View

The fact that the police are carrying out the investigation raises the issue of whether the football authorities are equipped properly to regulate the game

Matt Dickinson

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BACKGROUND

• Police arrest Redknapp over dealings

• Whispers will not go away for wheeler-dealer

• Newell left on a road to nowhere

• Mandaric will ''offer full support' to police

BACKGROUND

• Fans’ chants for Mandaric silenced

• Former bookie who knew value of being the middleman

• Faye gets caught in Redknapp’s net

• Old pals that survived Upton Park fallout

BACKGROUND

• Police moves highlight FA resources shortfall

• How events unfolded

Related Links

• Old pals that survived Upton Park fallout

• Police moves highlight FA resources shortfall

• Luton caught in the ‘bungs’ sweep

The inquiry, carried out by Quest, an independent company that specialises in security investigations, would focus on 320 Premier League transfers completed by 26 clubs since January 1, 2004 and would leave no stone unturned in its search for evidence. “I will personally overview the inquiry and ensure that it meets the highest standards of investigation and evidence gathering,” Stevens said.

After an investigation that lasted 15 months, Stevens presented his findings to the Premier League in June this year and identified 17 deals as suspect. Five clubs, including Portsmouth and Newcastle United, were implicated in transfers that could not be cleared.

The City of London Police were carrying out their own investigation into the murky world of bungs and backhanders and in July they made their move by raiding Rangers, Newcastle United and Portsmouth. The homes of two individuals were also searched but no arrests were made.

Willie McKay, one of the agents at the centre of the inquiries, denied any wrongdoing when he was interviewed by The Times and vowed to clear his name. “I have no idea what they are doing,” he said. “All I can do is carry on doing my job of selling players. I think you will probably find that when it all comes out, it will be nothing.”

In September, Pascal Chimbonda, the Tottenham Hotspur defender, was arrested and in May a 61-year-old man was arrested in Manchester on suspicion of money laundering. Seven people have been detained in connection with the investigation, but the City of London Police’s economic crime department has always distanced itself from the Stevens inquiry.

While Quest and the City of London Police made their inquiries, an undercover BBC Panorama team also set out to expose football’s dark heart. In September 2006 BBC trailers promised explosive revelations, but the programme was a damp squib. The “evidence” presented in the programme would not survive the scrutiny of a courtroom and all that it established was that proof is harder to come by than innuendo and bar talk.

In March, Newell lost his job at Luton after accusing his employers of corrupt business practices. Twelve days ago the FA charged the Coca-Cola League One club with making undisclosed payments of £160,000 to agents through a separate company and providing misleading information to the governing body.

Newell has applied for plenty of jobs since he left Kenilworth Road, but he is still waiting for the phone to ring. Since he blew the whistle almost two years ago, the authorities have tried to find hard evidence of corruption in the sport. Yesterday’s developments suggest that they may be close to making a breakthrough.

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