i hate derby
New member
Clough accused
By Raoul Simons, Evening Standard
23 September 2004
Brian Clough was back at the centre of controversy today, three days after his death, when one of the men charged with looking into allegations he took bungs during his career said he should have been found guilty.
Rick Parry, now the chief executive of Liverpool, was part of a three-man panel which conducted a six-year investigation into claims that the former Nottingham Forest manager accepted unsolicited payments in player transfers.
He was charged with misconduct by the Football Association in 1998 but the case was dropped on the grounds of Clough's ill health.
But, in an interview with today's Daily Telegraph, Parry said: "On the balance of evidence we felt he was guilty of taking bungs.
"The evidence was pretty strong. I was very surprised when the FA took no action against him or Forest.
"By the time our inquiry started, Clough was no longer in football and we could not compel him to appear. But he did come, on his own, to the offices of lawyers Denton Hall. He was lucid, treated our inquiry with respect, but it was not particularly productive."-The bungs inquiry began in 1993 when former Tottenham chairman Sir Alan Sugar accused Clough as part of a legal action against former manager and chief executive Terry Venables. Both Venables and Clough denied the claims.
Parry, QC Robert Reid and Steve Coppell, followed up the claims and spent a long time probing Teddy Sheringham's £2.1million move to Nottingham Forest in August 1992. It was alleged £58,750 went missing in the deal amid murky claims centred on brown envelopes being handed over at motorway service stations.
The allegations against Clough were never proved. At the end of the six-year investigation, which cost £3m, Forest were fined just £25,000 for irregular payments to players and staff.
After a separate inquiry into illegal payments to players Tottenham were fined £600,000 and docked 12 points in 1994.
Clough died on Monday from stomach cancer. At Nottingham Forest's City Ground last night there was a minute's silence before Gareth Taylor scored both goals in a 2-1 Carling Cup second round win over Rotherham
By Raoul Simons, Evening Standard
23 September 2004
Brian Clough was back at the centre of controversy today, three days after his death, when one of the men charged with looking into allegations he took bungs during his career said he should have been found guilty.
Rick Parry, now the chief executive of Liverpool, was part of a three-man panel which conducted a six-year investigation into claims that the former Nottingham Forest manager accepted unsolicited payments in player transfers.
He was charged with misconduct by the Football Association in 1998 but the case was dropped on the grounds of Clough's ill health.
But, in an interview with today's Daily Telegraph, Parry said: "On the balance of evidence we felt he was guilty of taking bungs.
"The evidence was pretty strong. I was very surprised when the FA took no action against him or Forest.
"By the time our inquiry started, Clough was no longer in football and we could not compel him to appear. But he did come, on his own, to the offices of lawyers Denton Hall. He was lucid, treated our inquiry with respect, but it was not particularly productive."-The bungs inquiry began in 1993 when former Tottenham chairman Sir Alan Sugar accused Clough as part of a legal action against former manager and chief executive Terry Venables. Both Venables and Clough denied the claims.
Parry, QC Robert Reid and Steve Coppell, followed up the claims and spent a long time probing Teddy Sheringham's £2.1million move to Nottingham Forest in August 1992. It was alleged £58,750 went missing in the deal amid murky claims centred on brown envelopes being handed over at motorway service stations.
The allegations against Clough were never proved. At the end of the six-year investigation, which cost £3m, Forest were fined just £25,000 for irregular payments to players and staff.
After a separate inquiry into illegal payments to players Tottenham were fined £600,000 and docked 12 points in 1994.
Clough died on Monday from stomach cancer. At Nottingham Forest's City Ground last night there was a minute's silence before Gareth Taylor scored both goals in a 2-1 Carling Cup second round win over Rotherham
