Sam Allardyce is demanding that the Daily Telegraph release its tape recordings of his meeting with the newspaper’s undercover reporters, which led to his dismissal as England’s football manager.
Allardyce believes the full tape recordings might exonerate his behaviour – although the newspaper has been warned by City of London police not to give the tapes to any third party because of its ongoing investigations into allegations of bribery and corruption in British football management.
He said: “I do not understand why the Telegraph appear happy to share the full tapes of its investigation with everybody, including the police and FA, and yet refuse outright to share them with the individuals that were named in their report and who have been ruled out by the police.”
It was in September that the Telegraph reported Allardyce had offered to help journalists posing as businessmen to circumvent certain FA rules while also agreeing to pick up a £400,000 private contract.
Within hours of the story breaking, Allardyce resigned from his job in “mutual agreement” with the FA and admitted he had been foolish.
There was no suggestion that Allardyce had broken the law and the City of London police confirmed last Friday that he was not subject to its investigation into other matters revealed by the Telegraph. However, the force has sought to retain the tapes as part of its inquiries.
A source close to Allardyce told the Guardian that he believes he may have been coaxed into saying something that, in ordinary circumstances, he would not have said.
“Basically,” said the source, “Sam just wants to know how he came to say what the paper reported.”
The Telegraph’s journalists had claimed to be businessmen working for a company that was seeking to recruit Allardyce as an ambassador who would attend speaking engagements in east Asia. Allardyce was accompanied at the meeting by his agent, Mark Curtis, and his financial adviser, Shane Moloney.
It took place as part of a broader 10-month Telegraph investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption in British football.
A City of London police spokesman said a production order was being sought in order to preclude the material being passed on to any third party, such as the FA and Allardyce.
The Telegraph said it would release the tapes to the FA when the police said it was free to do so. A spokesman for the newspaper said: “We will continue to cooperate with the police during their investigations. In the meantime, it remains our intention to release to the FA the relevant information of our investigation when we are free to do so.”
It means Allardyce, who is still facing an FA tribunal hearing into the affair, must wait for an unspecified period to have any chance of hearing the tapes. The FA is unlikely to pursue the matter without having had the opportunity to hear the tapes.
