From today's Times

Leeds United officials were involved in a deal to cover up a secret £250,000 payment to an unlicensed agent, the findings of an FA investigation have disclosed.
They show that Graham Bean, a former policeman who was the FA’s first compliance officer, and the club’s former chairman Massimo Cellino were instrumental in setting up a sham scouting agreement to hide the payment — which breached FA rules — surrounding the forward Ross McCormack’s sale to Fulham in 2014.
Bean, who turned whistleblower after being sacked by Cellino from his position with Leeds, later demanded £1,800 from the FA to act as a witness and tried to retract his evidence after his claim for the money was refused.
Cellino, who sold his remaining stake in Leeds in May, was banned by the FA for 12 months last week but Bean was not charged and continues to work in football as a “regulatory and governance expert".
The ultimate recipient of the £250,000 was Barry Hughes, an unlicensed agent from Scotland who has convictions for fraud, money-laundering and a nightclub attack. The FA’s findings said Bean and Cellino set up the sham agreement to pay Derek Day, a licensed agent also based in Scotland, for scouting services and that the money was then passed on to Hughes’s associates. Day was also banned by the FA for 18 months, 11 of which were suspended.
The findings of the regulatory commission state that Bean “was actively and knowingly instrumental in setting up the deceptive scouting agreement" and played an “unedifying" role in the matter. The report adds: “Even though he is not being charged in relation to these events, he still makes and will want to continue to make his living in football, including representing clients in front of FA regulatory commissions and appeal boards".
Bean, who was employed by Leeds as a consultant through his company Football Factors Ltd but was effectively working as the club’s company secretary, initially resisted paying the money to Hughes following McCormack’s £10.75 million sale but was called into Cellino’s office in September 2014, where the Italian was with Hughes, and was told that the £250,000 had to be paid despite it being against FA rules.
A scouting agreement with Day’s company Shadow Brands was set up on September 22, 2014, stating that the £250,000, minus £65,000 that Leeds had loaned to McCormack, would be paid in instalments for “scouting services". “None of those involved had any intention or expectation that [Derek Day] would actually carry out scouting activities," the commission said. The report adds: “It is clear that substantial sums received by DD [Day] from LUFC were passed on by him to associates of BH [Hughes]."
Bean, who denies breaching any rules, was sacked by Cellino for unrelated matters just three days after the sham agreement was set up and blew the whistle to the FA, whose investigator, Ian Ryder, decided to use him as the key witness and not press charges against him.
In October last year, while the hearing was taking place, Bean wrote a letter saying “he would be withdrawing all his assistance and evidence".
The report says: “That was his ill-judged reaction to the FA’s rejection of his claim for a fee of £1,800 for acting as a witness in this case. The purported withdrawal of his evidence was just part of his petulant reaction over his fee claim. It remains evidence in the case."
Leeds and Day admitted the misconduct charges but Cellino denied the same charge, appealed the decision and finally took it to arbitration, where he lost. Hughes was not dealt with by the FA because, as an unlicensed agent, he is beyond their jurisdiction.
The evidence to the commission did include reports of Hughes’s criminal convictions and its report concluded: “We noted that in his interview by Mr Ryder and his evidence to this Commission, DD [Day] was resistant to being drawn into any negative comment about BH [Hughes] and under cross-examination he was distinctly uncomfortable with any questions about BH.
“We conclude that Mr Hughes is a man to be approached with caution in any financial or business dealings."