Lord John Stevens announced on Monday that his investigation into alleged illegal payments in English football will be extended by two months in order to examine 39 transfers more closely. Stevens, a former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, looked into 362 transfers that occurred between January 2004 and January 2006 and found 39 transfers and eight clubs that need "further investigation". "I have briefed all of the chairmen and chief executives of Premier League clubs and this interim report remains a work in progress," Lord Stevens was quoted as saying by British media. "They are within the English game and require further investigation before I am prepared to sign them off. These involve eight league teams." Of the 39 transfers still under investigation, the majority were of the domestic nature. "This is not an easy inquiry but we will do everything in our powers to make sure it is a successful one," he added. "The work conducted led me to make a number of observations regarding administration and monitoring of the transfer market." Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said that three clubs were officially excluded from the investigation since they had only recently joined the league, and a fourth club was also dropped because there were no transfers in the past two years.
Redknapp Scudamore explained that while only eight of the 25 clubs are still under investigation all the clubs have agreed remain silent about their status in order to avoid public scrutiny. "Those 25 clubs wished to express solidarity with their colleagues, and there was no call for the eight clubs to be identified and therefore - mathematically what would be the remaining 17 clubs - to be released from the inquiry," he said. "This [the extension] is something Premier League clubs wanted to do, and has been done with full support of the clubs who wanted a thorough, professional and credible process to deal effectively with any irregular transfer payments." Stevens plans to use Football Association rules to force agents who may have suspicious activity to open their bank accounts to the investigation. "There will continue to be forensic investigation of entities both offshore and onshore," Stevens said. The FA has confirmed that they are willing to open agents' bank accounts, and will consider charging any who fail to comply with misconduct. "If we are asked to try to obtain information from agents under our powers of inquiry we will of course do so," an FA spokesman said.
