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City of London Police launch criminal investigation into suspected corruption in football

A criminal investigation has been opened after recent allegations by The Daily Telegraph into sus...



City of London Police launch c...
Soccer

City of London Police launch criminal investigation into suspected corruption in football

A criminal investigation has been opened after recent allegations by The Daily Telegraph into suspected corruption in football in the United Kingdom.

City of London Police say they are looking into "a single suspected offence of bribery".

It is believed that this investigation isn't related to the circumstances that saw Sam Allardyce lose his job as England manager.

"Detectives from the City of London Police Economic Crime Directorate have reviewed material gathered by a recent Daily Telegraph investigation into suspected corruption in football," " said City of London Police on their website.

"This review of the material has concluded and the decision has been taken to begin a criminal investigation into a single suspected offence of bribery."

Allardyce is not part of the current investigation and he welcomed the development in a statement.

"I was always confident that this would be the case as there was no evidence against me. I now ask that the Football Association deals with this matter as quickly as possible," said Allardyce.

"While I am sad that my tenure came to an end early, I am nonetheless proud to have been chosen to manage the England football team and hope that today's confirmation from the police will give me the opportunity to move on."

In September, he parted ways with the English FA after just one match in charge.

It came after he was filmed by The Telegraph appearing to tell businessmen how to get around rules on player transfer payments.

Allardyce, who had only been appointed England manager in July, was caught as part of an undercover sting by newspaper The Telegraph offering advice on how to get around player transfer payments and the newspaper claims a deal was struck with the England manager worth £400,000.

When asked about the rules, Allardyce was filmed on a hidden camera saying: "It's not a problem."

He told the reporters that an unnamed group had been "doing it for years" and "you can still get around it".

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