By Tom Fordyce

Football will struggle to rid itself of illegal transfer dealings despite the best efforts of the authorities, according to BBC Sport investigations.

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRANSFERS Transfer corruption 'rife'

A high-profile agent told BBC Sport on Wednesday how both clubs and agents routinely break both Fifa and Football Association rules - and get away scot-free.

And while steps have been taken throughout the game to make transfer deals more open to scrutiny, experts say there are serious problems in the way of a clean-up.

The FA set up a compliance unit in 1998 to look into such issues, in addition to other disciplinary matters.

Apart from saying that its work is "widespread", the FA will not reveal specific details of investigations nor say how many staff are working on anti-corruption cases.

The Football League has taken steps to show how much of its member clubs' spending goes to agents.

There are a number of people who have come into football thinking they can make an easy buck Graham Bean Former FA compliance officer

As of 1 January, it began registering all payments made by clubs in the course of transfers. At the end of the season it will publish the cumulative spending by individual clubs on agents.

The FA Premier League has a similar system in place. Whenever a Premiership club completes a transfer, it has to fill in a form detailing exactly who has been paid for what. A copy of this information is passed directly to the FA.

But this information is rarely made public.

There is no suggestion of any impropriety at all in Louis Saha's transfer from Fulham to Manchester United - but United's decision to reveal they paid �750,000 to Louis Saha's agent Branko Stoic was almost unprecedented - and voluntary.

Saha defends agent

The Premier League has also scheduled a series of regional meetings with the clubs to discuss the role of agents in football.

But Graham Bean, the man who ran the FA compliance unit for five years until 2003, says the fight against corruption is almost impossible to win.

"While there might be a lot of suspicion about a lot of transfer deals, the bottom line is that you have to find the hard evidence to prove that there has been a breach of the rules," Bean told BBC Sport.

"The problem you have when you are investigating agents is that football is such a close-knit community that everyone looks after each other.

"It's very difficult when you get into an investigation into the world of agents because there is a wall of silence around them.

"A lot of what goes on is word of mouth. The agent's world is a nudge-nudge, wink-wink environment.

"So while there is a willingness there to really get stuck into agents, because of the restrictions they have in the investigative powers at the Football Association and other football authorities, it is incredibly difficult to do it."

Lack of hard evidence

In other words, prosecuting clubs or agents acting illegally is like pinning water to a wall.

Take the example of a player being tapped up. If a manager's friend simply calls a player on his mobile, there is no proof after the event that anything untoward took place.

Phone records would show a call, but nothing else. The FA cannot build a legally-sound case on mere accusations.

"Illegal approaches might only come to the authorities' notice if a certain club made a complaint - and even then they could only base it on rumour and innuendo and suspicion," says Bean. "There would be no hard evidence to go on.

There are lots of complaints about how anaemic the FA's compliance unit is Anonymous football agent

"The clubs are sometimes their own worst enemies. One week the agent will be their sworn adversary, but the following week they will be their best friend because they want a particular player.

"It's a very fickle world. Some clubs do favour certain agents, because as in any walk of life you come across people who have done a good job for you in the past so you see no reason to change them.

"But the bottom line is that clubs have to go along with the way that the agents work, just to ensure they get the players they want."

Meagre resources

And rule changes alone are meaningless without political will.

The agent who spoke to BBC Sport said: "There are lots of complaints about how anaemic the FA's compliance unit is. The regulations are issued with amazing regularity, but you need someone determined to implement them."

Bean is more supportive, but admits that the resources in the battle against corruption are meagre.

"Under the circumstances, the FA are doing as much as they can - but it's like anything else - you could always do with extra hands," he said.

In theory at least, to operate as an agent you must be licensed by Fifa, passing a multiple-choice exam set by the FA and taking out professional indemnity insurance to ensure good practice.

But the perception that becoming an agent guarantees financial riches is attracting too many chancers into the game, according to Bean.

In England alone there are 229 Fifa-licensed agents, plus 44 in Scotland. That compares to 147 in Spain and just 44 in Italy.

"Whilst there are some agents at the top properly registered with the FA, there are a lot of others scratching around at the bottom," says Bean.

"A lot of them are gambling on the future by taking on youngsters who might not even make the grade - as a gamble that just one of them might get lucky.

"It would be hard for the FA to put a limit on the number of agents, but there are a number of people who have come into football thinking they can make an easy buck.

"Agents have a stranglehold on the game that has taken all common sense out of it."