Football corruption: Agent tells ITV News he made up Premier League manager bungs allegations
The football agent who said eight current and former Premier League managers had received "bungs" for player transfers has told ITV News he made up the claim to please the fake investors who had promised him a lucrative salary.
Pino Pagliara was recorded saying several top football managers were "bent" at a meal with undercover Telegraph reporters posing as a Far East firm.
But Pagliara told ITV News he "absolutely" made up the claim "because it's what (the fake group) wanted to hear".
The Italian agent, who is unlicenced after being banned from football for five years for match-fixing in the Italian league in 2005, said he was approached to advise an apparently reputable Asian group looking to join top table of English football.
Pagliara confirmed he accepted a contract in excess of £400,000 and a renewable expense account of £60,000 for the role.
"At 61 years old you don't get offers like that," he told ITV News Sports Correspondent Ian Payne, adding: "I'm still waiting for my company car and I don't think I'll get it."
Pagliara was also at the filmed meeting where Barnsley FC's then assistant manager Tommy Wright was seen to accept an envelope containing £5,000 in cash.
He revealed to ITV News he asked Wright to accept the envelope on his behalf.
Pagliara said: "I asked Tommy, because I needed that money, if he would lend himself to taking this money, allowing them to believe it was for him.
"But the actual fact is this ... as soon as we were on our own Tommy Wright gave me that money."
Wright, who denied wrongdoing after being filmed by the Telegraph receiving an envelope on camera, has since been sacked by the Championship club.
Pagliara confirmed he still had the cash-filled envelope, saying: "I've got no car. I've got no Range Rover. But the only thing I've got is the £5,000."
Pagliara said the fake representatives informed him they wanted to build a database of 30-40 high-quality players but were concentrating on finding a corrupt manager in order to exert full control on their chosen club.
"They believed that the only guaranteed and assured way of being able to do a transfer of a player was if they had a manager in their pocket," he said.
"If the manager is taking money from us then we are assured of success."
Pagliara claimed he disagreed with the approach but when he realised the supposed investors were adamant told them "what they wanted to hear".
"After trying to explain that that wasn't the case I felt that it was probably easier to say, 'ok, whatever you say, we'll bung them'."
He claimed he confirmed the names of eight managers they presented to him.
"They named the managers based on their research," he said. "They went to look at the clubs that I had involvement with and they obviously picked the managers in accordance with those clubs."
Despite admitting his involvement in Italy's match-fixing scandal a decade ago, Pagliara said he had "absolutely not" been involved in any corrupt transfers.
"Find me a manager that says he's taken money (from me) or find me some evidence that I have given money to a manager then you don't need to believe me. Then my name is finished. But I don't think you will, because I haven't," he said.
He also attacked the Telegraph's reporting, claiming it was "incompetent" and "ignorant" of the football industry and had gone after the wrong targets.
"The Telegraph hasn't got a clue of how (the football industry) runs. It doesn't have any ability, any incompetence in the industry," he said.
"Whether (corruption) runs deep or not the investigation would be better spent in realistic areas and not creating them because it's hard enough to try to find the villains - why create ones that aren't there."
The Telegraph said it stood by its reporting when contacted by ITV News to reply to Pagliara's accusations.