The FA are getting set to launch an investigation into Neil Warnock over a player’s revelation made on his TikTok video recently.
Reports state that Football Association chiefs are looking to explosive claims that Neil Warnock demanded a £6,000 kickback from one footballer he used to manage.
Experienced forward Rowan Vine alleged Warnock told him he must give him the money if he wanted to play for him at Loftus Road.
In a TikTok video seen by SunSport but not made public, Vine said: “He was giving me the chance to play, but he was taking away some of my money.
“He wanted six grand cash a month or something like that. Then he started talking numbers.
“I said: ‘Why are you talking numbers? It’s not happening’. Then he said: ‘What do you mean?’”
Vine, now 39 and a player-coach at Hemel Hempstead, was at QPR from 2007-12, while Warnock managed the club from 2010-12.
Vine went on to claim that Warnock “couldn’t believe it” when he snubbed his offer and added: “He was shocked as he couldn’t see the bad side of the deal.
“But it wasn’t a deal I could take as a man. I’ve got principles.
So I said: ‘If you want me to play for your team just ask me’.”
Warnock has always angrily denied any allegations of impropriety during his long managerial career.
In 2014, Jason Puncheon, who played on loan at Queens Park Rangers under Warnock in 2011, made a similar claim against him.
Warnock was the subject of the tweets from an account of Puncheon’s in 2014 where he said that the 67-year-old also increased players’ wages and appearance bonuses before taking a share for himself. The account and tweets have since been deleted.
In 2016, MP Damian Collins, the acting chair of the select committee on Culture, Media and Sport, used parliamentary privilege to raise a string of tweets by Puncheon in 2014 with then-FA chairman Greg Clarke as part of a hearing about alleged corruption and wrongdoing in football.
Collins, who questioned whether the FA had a “lack of curiosity” allegations of corrupt behaviour in the game, said: “In January 2014 it was reported that Jason Puncheon, the Crystal Palace player, made allegations on Twitter regarding Neil Warnock, his former manager.
“The tweets have been deleted but for the benefit of the committee they are still available online, although they’re not on his Twitter account.
“He [Puncheon] said: ‘What I won’t accept is an opinion from a man who’s crooked and ruining the game.
“’Neil Warnock, the man who signs players, gives them extra wages and appearance bonuses to make sure that they pay him to get into the team or on the bench.
“’The fact he could even talk about training is shocking, he was never there.’”
In reply to Collins’ statement, Clarke said he hadn’t been in the job at the time and was unaware of the incident, to which Collins responded: “I think it would be pretty poor if someone has gone public and they don’t have any contact from the FA asking why have they made this allegation.”
The FA’s director of strategy, Robert Sullivan, who gave evidence alongside Clarke said: “There are comments made on social media and there is hard evidence.”
Puncheon was issued with a £15,000 fine by the FA for his comments, with the governing body concluding the midfielder had “failed to act in the best interests of the game”.
In response Warnock said: “These allegations are completely and utterly false.
“The FA Commission considered all of the evidence in detail in 2014 and it found the allegations were unfounded.
“Any suggestion that the FA failed to investigate this matter is simply untrue.
‘In fact, Mr Puncheon apologised to me and removed the allegations from his Twitter account. The FA fined him £15,000 and he was warned as to his future conduct.
‘I am disappointed that these allegations have been repeated after Mr Puncheon’s apology and after the FA investigated fully.
‘If anyone had asked me the truth before publication, I would have pointed them to the FA website, where the facts are all easily accessible.’
SEE MORE: Neil Warnock joins Twitter; explains infamous video of him walking sternly at the camera
There was plenty of reaction with the FA to launch an investigation into Neil Warnock over a player’s revelation on a TikTok video…
@PoshPenguino: @warnockofficial Did you really demand 6 grand from Rowan Vine to select him at QPR? Bit dodgy mate.
@DanMac_99: I see Rowan vine has sniffed his way to bankruptcy and is now clutching at straws
James ‘Asbo’ Absalom: Hardly shocking stuff as Warnock always came across as someone who would like a brown envelope. That said he’s retired so one final time for him to give the FA the middle finger!
Phil Judge: Vine was lucky to be earning more than £6 grand a month!!
Neil Hughes: Warnock never had any morals ,win at all costs, battle of bramall lane proved that .pathetic cheat should have been thrown out of the game years ago
Matthew Ward: Serves him right for muscat
Steven Duffy: Not surprised, him & Sam Allardyce are two of a kind!
John Trevor Andrews: No smoke 💨 without fire 🔥..always thought Warnocks a bit dodgy.. Battle of Bramall Lane comes to mind when he tried to get game abandoned because his team was loosing..
Daniel Pedro Walls: After seeing Rowan Vine play I’d also be asking for him to pay for his place
Iain Locke: Ha If true shows entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well,love this guy!
Luke Raynor: Makes me like him even more. What a legend
Martin Harvey: why not report it when it happened why wait 10 years
Lee Morris: Jason Puncheon needs probing for his performance for Huddersfield Town against West Ham in 2019, he was masquerading as a footballer that day.
Paul Williams: Good old Colin entertainment even in retirement
Jamie Kent: I’m betting this is how maguire gets games
Gary Luke: Liar. I hope Colin sues him
Paul Whitehead: Heard on pod casts he’d put a sub on to earn appearance fee then take a cut
David Wilcock: Took the deal and the cash, then waited till you’ve blown it all to try and cash in for more!!!
Mal Malcolm: This is just foolishness from the footballer why didn’t he bring it up then,🤷🏼♂️but to bring it up when the Bally is retired is just nonsense
Ryan Redmond: He just admitted he’s so rubbish he had to pay to play hahaha 😂
Glenn McConnell: As a Wednesday fan, it’s fair to say I’m not Warnock’s biggest fan, but there’s something not right about this. Vine & Warnock worked together until 2012. It was in 2014 Puncheon made his allegations against Warnock. Are we to believe that Vine was happy to let Puncheon face an FA charge & fine over something he could have helped defend, but decided to come out with it 8 years later completely unprompted? I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but if Vine could have supported Puncheon’s claims and didn’t, it doesn’t reflect very well on him.
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