Managers to face new code on 'bungs'

All league managers will have to sign up to a new "bung busters" code of conduct to prevent corruption, profiteering, nepotism and backhand deals in transfers under a plan being formulated by the League Managers' Association and the Football Association.

Under the proposed rules, managers will be forced to declare if they are dealing with family members or have any personal links with any agents working on transfers involving their clubs. The LMA is also exploring the possibility that managers might be asked to disclose personal information about their bank accounts.

The new code of conduct will be enforced by the FA's compliance unit, a team of five investigators – nicknamed the "Bung Busters" – headed by Steve Barrow, an expert in financial irregularities. "We're looking for greater transparency and accountability and are taking legal instruction on the draft code of conduct," John Barnwell, the chief executive of the LMA, said yesterday.

"If there is a conflict of interest then managers must register it. You might have an agent looking after you who brings you a player, and that is a conflict of interest... By registering that conflict you can eliminate that doubt and give it [the professional relationship between the two] credibility. Football is not corrupt but we want to make sure that it is as clean as it possibly can be."

The LMA's lawyers are already working on a fourth draft of the new code, which will force clubs, managers and agents to make every financial aspect of every transfer available to the authorities.

Some 95 per cent of managers have approved the scheme, which will compel a manager such as Sir Alex Ferguson, for example, to detail full and precise information about transfers to and from Manchester United of players represented by his agent son, Jason. The code would remove any hint of a conflict of interests.

Asking managers to open to their personal bank accounts to scrutiny is not an option Barnwell believes will be a regular occurrence, although he does not rule it out entirely.

"The code will make managers accountable, transparent and professional," he said. "The FA's compliance unit will deal with any breaches. They will be the teeth behind it, not us."

The LMA's lawyers are working to make the code legally watertight in consultation with the FA, the Premier League and the players' union, the Professional Footballers' Association. Once ratified by the FA, the code will come into force as soon as possible.

The FA has already disclosed plans to act as a transfer clearing house and to use fraud specialists to reveal illicit payments.