History shows the `bung' is over a century old

FOOTBALL'S SLEAZY PAST

BY PHIL SHAW

It was the man under whom George Graham's playing career took off at Chelsea, Tommy Docherty, who memorably decreed that "managers have to be cheats and conmen. . . the only way to survive is by cheating".

Yet however sleaze is defined - and in football it has come to encompass bribery, betting, bungs, sex, drink, drugs, the role of agents and even the martial arts - it is no more confined to the managerial ranks than it is a modern phenomenon. Docherty was expressing, from a cynical perspective, sentiments akin to those articulated by C B Fry, the great Corinthian player, back in 1911: "It is widely acknowledged that if both sides agreed to cheat, cheating is fair.'

Ever since the moment football ceased to be a voluntary leisure activity, money and the temptations it creates have cast a shadow over the game. In its preview of the 1883/84 season, the Athletic News claimed that the sport "has developed into a vast business institution", yet the players were not officially paid or compensated for time spent away from the pit or the mill.

Dr Tony Mason, in his book Association Football and English Society 1863- 1915, noted that Bolton Wanderers had expended £1,082 in 1882 but had a balance in hand of only £11. "With most matches played at home, where had the money gone? The answer was clear enough: into the players' pockets."

The split between amateurs and professionals in 1885 made this early form of "bung" legitimate, at the same time bonding football and finance inextricably. As Simon Inglis's book Soccer in the Dock shows, scandal quickly reared its head - then, as now, ensnaring the most unlikely people.

The legendary Billy Meredith, for instance, was suspended for one season in 1905 for seeking to bribe the Aston Villa team.

Six years later, the Middlesbrough manager, Andy Walker, was found guilty of a similar offence (he had offered the Sunderland players £2 per man). And in 1915 it emerged that a Manchester United v Liverpool match was "fixed" to ease United's relegation fears and as part of a betting scam. Eight players were banned sine die.

When football resumed after the Great War, Leeds City were expelled from the League for making illegal payments to players during the conflict. Their place was taken by Port Vale who, with an unhappy symmetry, were to be thrown out themselves in 1968 (and promptly re-elected) after admitting an identical offence.

Leeds City's manager, incidentally, was Herbert Chapman, later to become Graham's most illustrious predecessor at Highbury. Vale's general manager at the time of their misdemeanour was Sir Stanley Matthews, though he was cleared of any wrong-doing.

The relationship between clubs and players remained on a master-servant basis during the first half of the century, thus exposing the hard-up working-class player to temptation. Ironically, it was not until two years after the lifting of the maximum wage in 1961 that the first major post- war scandal unfolded.

Three leading players - England's Peter Swan and Tony Kay, plus David Layne - were imprisoned for their part in a betting coup which, like the George Graham-Rune Hauge affair, was first aired in a Sunday newspaper.

The allegations in the People also involved several lower-division players. The Sheffield Wednesday trio were suspended for life, although Swan later rebuilt his career after the FA relaxed the ban.

Following Don Revie's defection from the England manager's job, long- rumbling claims of malpractice during his time with Leeds United were resurrected. These centred on allegations that bribes were offered to opposing managers and players, with Leeds' championship decider at Wolves in 1972 the subject of particularly damaging claims. After legal threats and counter-threats, the matter lapsed.

In the past few years, however, barely a month has gone by without the whiff of corruption. The likes of Brian Clough, Terry Venables, Lou Macari and Bruce Grobbelaar have had to defend themselves; others, such as Paul Merson, have decided to come clean; and clubs from Tottenham to Swindon have been called to account for their accounting.

Nowadays we call it sleaze, but like the poor, it has always been with us.