As you will all have no doubt heard by now Sam Allardyce, the England manager appointed for a mere 67 days has been sacked by the English FA.
The man nicknamed ‘Big Sam’ fell for a little old trick of entrapment set up by the English press. He was caught boasting of how he could get around football rules to assist a fictitious third party in return for some cash. The English have been the leaders of the ‘clean up corruption in football’ crusade, so it’s rather refreshing that their top man was caught with his pants down.
Here are five other football bigwigs kicked out of the beautiful game for being corrupt.
Sepp is the grand master of corruption that has tainted world football. He was eventually kicked out of his FIFA presidency role in 2015 after being found of wrongdoing in a £1.3 million pass made to Michel Platini, the former head of UEFA.
The money was definitely an offer Sepp could not refuse.
Despite been shown evidence that he accepted bribes from FIFA – wired into his account – Jack Warner stood his ground and maintained his innocence, showing a defiance not seen since Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
The man from Trinidad and Tobago not only took bribes for shady practices, but he was also the Minister of National Security for the Caribbean island. Look out for him on a screen near you.
If only the former head of the Qatari football association could go back in time like Jake Gyllenhaal in the Sands of Time, he would not have made corrupt payments to football officials to accompany their 2022 World Cup bid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHPti64Zljw
The bid was successful, but the tournament is one that has been marred not only by the corruption allegations but also revelation of forced labour used in the construction of the football stadiums.
Nigeria’s former football official was for a long time seen as one of the things wrong with the Nigerian football establishment. Lulu was embroiled in the scandal of missing money after Nigeria’s abysmal World Cup in South Africa 2010.
He and three others were arrested for money missing to the tune of $8 million. In the famous words of former first lady of Nigeria. Diaris God O!!!
Alexandre Dumas famously said ‘Yet man will never be perfect until he learns to create and destroy’. It appears that Platini took those words literally as he destroyed his opportunity to be Sepp Blatter’s successor at FIFA by being caught up in the Godfather’s corruption ring. The former French captain was seen by many as the man to revamp FIFA.
Looking back, maybe Platini should not have soiled his achievements as a player in the corruption gutter.