Southampton assistant Eric Black latest to be named in corruption scandal
Southampton assistant Eric Black is being accused of "advising businessmen" on how to bribe staff members who work for lower league clubs, according to The Telegraph's latest piece highlighting corruption in football.
Southampton issued a statement shortly before the article was published, saying it intends to cooperate and work closely with both the FA and Premier League as further details are made public. Black has denied the accusations.
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In the video, Black offers his advice to undercover reporters, posing as representatives of a Far East firm, on how a bribe could persuade, and take advantage of officials at lower-league clubs.
(Courtesy: The Telegraph)
Black is said to have identified a colleague at a Championship club, explaining to the undercover reporters that the lack of money - compared to the Premier League - in the second tier of English football is the primary reason, "it doesn’t take too much to get these people involved."
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Specifically, Black was advising the "businessmen" how officials at lower-league teams could be persuaded by a monetary value worth "a couple grand" into providing valuable information on players who the fictional company wanted to represent.
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The undercover reporters were under the guise of businessmen interested in entering the lucrative transfer market when they met with Black at a hotel in Hampshire on Sept. 2.
Black is filmed telling the reporters to speak with an unidentified assistant manager at a Championship team and how to approach the conversation: "You say, 'look, we've set up the company, we want to go big, you build up the whole thing and you would do brilliantly, then, y'know, if you get somebody, we'll give you a couple of grand or something ... '"
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In a statement, Southampton said: "Southampton Football Club is fully committed to investigating any situation that directly or indirectly relates to our club, employees, or the wider community."
Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger, who is currently in Canada coaching team Europe at the World Cup of Hockey, has previously vowed to "fight for more regulation" after learning about previous revelations made by The Telegraph. He added that Southampton is "one of the most disciplined clubs in English football" when it comes to its dealings with agents and academy players.