THE FA will increase the pressure on the BBC today to release all the evidence gathered in its year-long Panorama investigation into corruption in the sport, including information that was censored or left out of the programme because of concerns about the legal repercussions of broadcasting unsubstantiated claims.

Although Sam Allardyce, the Bolton Wanderers manager, was accused of corruption in the programme — an allegation he has angrily rejected by outlining his intention to take legal action — the BBC said that 17 other Premiership managers past and present were the subject of similar claims during its investigations.

The FA has launched an inquiry into the claims relating to Allardyce and the allegations of an illegal approach by Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, but it is ready to demand that the BBC releases all its footage, including the claims that were bleeped out and other clips that ended on the cutting-room floor.

Redknapp is viewed to have emerged from the programme with his reputation intact — with most observers dismissing his conversation with an agent about Andy Todd, the Blackburn Rovers defender, as a routine matter — but it was claimed last night that he had launched a libel claim against the BBC before the programme was screened.

Redknapp’s solicitors are understood to have written to the corporation expressing concern about newspaper reports that speculated about what the programme would allege. The letter is also said to have accused the BBC of leaking such information, a claim that the corporation denied.

Redknapp seemed to indicate otherwise yesterday, calling the programme “farcical” and saying: “I don’t think there’s anything in it that I need to worry my lawyer about.” He also expressed his support for Allardyce. “I hope things get sorted out for Sam — he’s a fantastic manager.”

Peter Harrison, the agent whose work was highlighted in the Panorama programme, entitled Undercover: Football’s Dirty Secrets, said yesterday:

“I’ve never given bungs. I’ve not given a bung to Sam Allardyce. I’ve never given a bung. I shall be suing the BBC.”

The programme has also been damned by many in the managerial fraternity, but Chris Coleman, the Fulham manager, said that the game is far from squeaky clean. “We’ve had players touted to us,” Coleman said. “It’s not just football, it happens in all businesses. The rules are bent by everybody, or at least most people.”

Uefa, European football’s governing body, has urged governments to regulate agents in what it calls the jungle culture of football. “We are not the FBI,” William Gaillard, a Uefa spokesman, said. “Maybe it needs a European Commission directive and regulations. At the moment, any 10-year-old could take the agents’ exam.”

• Fifa is preparing to take responsibility for insuring players on national duty and paying their wages should they get injured. The game’s world governing body is being sued by Charleroi, the Belgian club, over an injury suffered by Abdelmajid Oulmers when away with Morocco.

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