Last Tuesday, The Ten O'Clock News looked at serious allegations made in the BBC's Panorama program about the Football Premiership. Three football agents claimed the Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has taken illegal payments, he's firmly denied the claims. Adam Parsons reports.

Sam Allardyce arrived at Walsall tonight with some problems ahead of him, not so much the challenge of inspiring his Bolton team in the Cup game, but the fact he was about to be accused of corruption. In tonight’s Panorama program, three football agents, each of them filmed secretly, separately claimed Allardyce accepted illegal payments, known in football as “bungs”.

First was Teni Yerima, an agent based in France.

I tell you with Sam Allardyce it's wonderful. You can do everything with him.

Yerima now says he made up his comments.

Charles Collymore was the second agent filmed commenting on Allardyce.
It might be that I give Sam a call and say, “Listen, I got something. You wanna hear about this, 'cause he likes a deal.

Collymore too, claims he fabricated his comments.
Peter Harrison was the third and best-known agent shown. He was filmed saying that he bribes Allardyce by offering to pay money to his son Craig, also an agent.

His son, who’s thirty, I say. “Listen Sam, we'll give Craig some money,”
Okay.
And, and he'll say, “Yeah, okay, we’ll do a, we’ll do a deal”

Allardyce was not the only manager implicated by the BBC’s research. Eighteen past and present Premiership managers, not all of them identified in tonight’s program, were named as corrupt by people who had dealt with them directly. So, what is a bung? Well, let’s say, this football manager wants to sign a new contract with this player. He will do it by contacting the player’s agent and they'll discuss the terms of the deal. The agent will then have to ask for fee for his part in fixing up the new contract but an unscrupulous manager will only sanction that if he gets a slice of the fee for himself, and that secret, illegal payment is known as a “bung”.

Tonight's investigation did spread into other areas though.

This is Frank Arnesen, the man in charge of youth football at Chelsea. He was filmed proposing a deal to sign a 15-year-old registered with another club, an illegal approach known in football as “tapping up”.

150,000 pounds, spread in three years, and we can do it like a royalty bonus and this and this, spilt it up in salary. We can talk about that.

Chelsea denied that Arnesen's meeting broke any official regulations.

Tonight Bolton's fans were able to celebrate victory, while Allardyce told the BBC he'd never requested or received a bung. Yet, football is now facing some awkward questions, ones it will finally have to confront.

New Words and Expressions

panorama n.全景：包括周圍所有區(qū)域的全部畫景，詳盡的描述；綜合評述；概觀：一系列事件的印象
Football Premiership 英格蘭足球超級聯(lián)賽
fabricate vt.制作, 構(gòu)成, 捏造, 偽造, 虛構(gòu)
unscrupulous adj.肆無忌憚的, 無道德的, 不謹慎的