Southampton assistant manager Eric Black gave undercover reporters advice on how to bribe officials at other clubs, the Daily Telegraph has claimed.<\/p>\n
Black, 52, was filmed apparently naming staff at other clubs who could be induced to pass on information about players to a company for money.<\/p>\n
Such payments would be against Football Association rules.<\/p>\n
Black, who oversaw Aston Villa’s final seven Premier League matches last season, has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t take too much to get these people involved,” Black says in the covert recording.<\/p>\n
“They won’t have an awful lot of money.”<\/p>\n
Former Aberdeen striker Black quotes a figure of “a couple of grand”, which the Telegraph claims was his suggestion of a suitable payment to an unnamed assistant coach at a Championship side in return for introducing players to the undercover reporters’ fictitious agency.<\/p>\n
Black denies suggesting that any football official should be paid, saying that his “couple of grand” comment related to a freelance scout that an agency looking to break into the football industry might approach.<\/p>\n
Under FA rules, intermediaries “must not give, offer or seek to offer, any consideration of any kind” to a club official “in return for any benefit, service, favour or any kind of preferential treatment”.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Black said his client did not recall the possibility of bribing officials being mentioned.<\/p>\n
“This was not the purpose of the meeting so far as our client understood it. Any suggestion that he was complicit in such discussions is false,” the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
Southampton said they were “fully committed” to investigating the claims and intend to work closely with the Premier League and FA on them.<\/p>\n
Black has held permanent managerial posts at Motherwell and Coventry, as well as having caretaker spells at Birmingham, Sunderland, Blackburn, Rotherham and Villa.<\/p>\n
He played for Aberdeen and French side Metz and won three caps for Scotland before he became a coach at Celtic.<\/p>\n
The allegations about Black are the latest from the Daily Telegraph’s investigation into corruption in football.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Barnsley assistant boss Tommy Wright was sacked over claims he took cash for trying to engineer certain transfers. Wright has “categorically denied” the claims.<\/p>\n
Sam Allardyce left his post as England manager on Tuesday, making a “whole-hearted apology” in the wake of allegations in the newspaper that he offered advice on how to “get around” rules on player transfers.<\/p>\n
The FA said it has been liaising with The Daily Telegraph and City of London Police over the allegations, adding it would meet police next week.<\/p>\n
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