Don Revie - Allegations of Impropriety

Allegations of Impropriety

Revie's reputation suffered in the late 70s after his controversial England resignation. Both the Daily Mirror and Sunday People claimed that Revie had attempted to bribe Wolverhampton Wanderers players to lose a crucial match in May 1972. The papers quoted Wolves midfielder Danny Hegan and former Leeds United goalkeeper Gary Sprake's claims that Revie's captain Billy Bremner had tried to arrange a bribe. Bremner sued for libel and won £100,000 libel damages, along with legal costs, after both Hegan and Sprake refused to repeat their allegations under oath in court. Wolves player Derek Dougan, who had scored against Leeds in the match in question, testified that no attempt was made to bribe Wolves and that the claims were nonsense.

Additionally Bob Stokoe would later claim that while managing Bury in 1962, Revie had offered him a bribe to "go easy" on his Leeds side who were at the time struggling against relegation to the Third Division and that he had become enraged when Revie responded to his refusal to accept the bribe by asking "in that case, may I speak to your players?".

The Daily Mirror claimed they had delivered a 300-page dossier to the F.A detailing the evidence of these allegations against Revie, although the FA stated that no such dossier was received. Both the FA and the police did investigate the allegations but found no evidence that they occurred and Revie was never charged with any offence.