Corruption allegations: Mike Newell, the Luton Town manager who claims the game is being destroyed by corrupt agents taking backhanders and siphoning cash out of the sport, is being summoned to the English FA to provide the evidence.

If Newell is able to substantiate his allegations, he will throw football back into the dark despair of the 1990s - where the talk was not of players' activities on the field, but of the financial malpractices off it. Furtive meetings in service station carparks and bundles of cash in brown envelopes oiled the wheels of the game, or so rumour had it.

Newell first pulled the pin out of his verbal grenade on Wednesday night. Speaking at a low-key public event, he described agents as "parasites" and "the scourge of the game".

"Millions of pounds have gone out of the game that will not be seen again," he said. "A lot of people involved with the agents and doing the deals are getting backhanders. That's without question. What I suspect is that people in high places are also involved with the agents. There'd be people with major worries."

The Luton manager promised yesterday he would name names. "I have no problem; I have no reason to be afraid and I have no fear of anybody coming to speak to me. They need to come to me - I have absolutely nothing to hide. I have done my duty to football," he told BBC radio.

It is 13 years since the High Court heard that one of the game's most famous managers, the late Brian Clough, "likes a bung (backhander)" and nearly 12 since George Graham was sacked as manager of Arsenal after being found guilty of taking payments of £425,000 from a Norwegian agent over two signings.

If Newell's claims are true, football's culture of corruption has never gone away. "If George Graham is the only one guilty of taking a bung in the last 10 years, I would be absolutely amazed," he said. Newell said he had been offered bungs, but his conscience was clear because he had ignored overtures. "I wouldn't say it is a rarity either. If I was open to it, or interested in it, then it would be a regular occurrence."

Bungs would be upwards of £10,000 even in the English League Championship, he said. "If the governing bodies don't eradicate some of the things happening, it will kill the game. I've seen the money agents make at Championship level and I can only imagine what they make at the top."

The English FA, which brought in new regulations for agents on January 1st after two years of heated debate between clubs and regulatory bodies, contacted Newell yesterday and said it would meet him early next week.

Brian Barwick, FA chief executive, said: "These are very serious claims that Mike Newell has made. We welcome the fact he is willing to provide names and details of people who have breached the rules. If he provides us with evidence we will investigate fully. The FA takes this issue very seriously. If people have evidence we would expect them to come forward and provide it to our compliance department, who thoroughly investigate evidence of wrongdoing."

The regulations were designed to increase transparency and remove conflicts of interest, but they did not ban "dual representation", where an agent works for - and is paid by - both club and player. The English Premiership clubs feared this restriction would put them at a disadvantage against other European clubs. England, with 290, is in the top bracket of European countries in terms of the number of agents.

The growth industry in agents is a side-product of the sums of money swirling around the English game. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "He (Newell) has a duty to the game to tell us exactly what he knows and if there has been wrongdoing it will be taken up. If he can substantiate his claims, it could be fantastic evidence."

The English Football League - responsible for the 72 soccer clubs in the Championship and Leagues One and Two - says the new rules do not go far enough. A spokesman said: "We have been told by the clubs it is a big problem - a lot of money is leaving the game."

Last season the league's clubs paid out £7.2 million in fees to agents, a figure put in perspective by the £25 million it received in revenue from television.

Lord Mawhinney, the league's chairman, said: "Mike Newell's comments do not surprise me . . . if he needs an advocate or needs to discuss the issues privately with anyone I am happy to offer myself."

The league wants to outlaw dual representation by agents and a draft proposal will be put to the clubs in March and could be in place next season.

British Sports minister Richard Caborn said he expected tough action to follow if Newell passes evidence to the FA. Caborn is leading a Europe-wide review, due to report in June, which will examine football's excesses, including the role of agents.

Calls for an inquiry were echoed by a group of leading agents who fear Newell's outburst will tar all of them instead of just the unscrupulous few. Phil Smith, of First Artists, said: "Newell cannot turn his back on it now, because it will mean there is just going to be innuendo. He needs to say who he has been approached by - are they English or foreign agents - and what did they offer?" ... Guardian Service