Sam Allardyce is 'no Mother Teresa' and FA failed to do its due diligence, claims former agent

James Benge6 October 2016

The Football Association failed to do its due diligence in the hiring of Sam Allardyce as England manager, according to former leading football agent Mel Stein.

Allardyce left the job last week following an investigation by the Daily Telegraph which appeared to show the Three Lions boss advising reporters posing as businessmen how to sidestep transfer laws, with Gareth Southgate appointed in his place on an interim basis.

Stein, the outgoing chairman of the Association of Football Agents, told the Leaders In Sport Business Summit that he believed neither he nor any other agent had been contacted by the FA before they appointed Allardyce, and he thinks agents may have been able to provide greater insight on the manager.

Stein said Allardyce was “no Mother Teresa”, adding: “I’m not accusing him of anything but if anyone had asked us we would have warned them.”

Asked whether he felt the FA had failed to do their due diligence by not consulting any agents, Stein said: “Sure they didn’t. It’s very obvious they didn’t.

“I find it astonishing that the gamekeepers [FA] show no inclination to reach out to the poachers [agents] and ask what’s going on on your side of the counter.”

The incident over which Allardyce left his job occurred after he had been appointed England manager. In an interview after Allardyce's exit, FA chairman Greg Clarke said the governing body could not have found any issues in due diligence.

Both Stein and his successor Mike Miller made clear that they believed agents needed to be given powers of self-regulation to ensure that unscrupulous intermediaries could be weeded out.

“Deregulation hasn’t worked,” Miller said. “The agents want a regulated industry. Agents need clients – in order to get and keep them you need to do the best you possibly can for them. For that they want a level playing field.

“They don’t want some people to win clients in an unethical way.”

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