When a jury of seven men and four women convicted two football agents and an assistant manager of bribery this month, it marked the end of a journalistic investigation that penetrated the dark world of the national sport.

The undercover investigation began four years earlier, following a tip-off about agents paying “bungs” to football managers and officials to secure deals.

One of those said to have employed questionable methods was Pino Pagliara, a Manchester based agent who worked at the highest level in the game.

After months of painstaking research, an undercover reporter sat opposite him and Dax Price, his business associate, in a central London bar.

It did not take Pagliara long to set out how he was willing to break the rules.

“Fair is the other people’s problem… We take no prisoners…”, he smiled.

Smoking a cigarette outside the smart bar in Belgravia, he confided: “I love it when people say, ‘Pino is involved in this deal, he’ll corrupt everybody’.”

Price chipped in: “That’s the trouble with this industry – everyone’s getting looked after. That’s the problem.”

But unbeknown to the two men, the meeting was the start of a series to be captured on secret camera and form the basis of a criminal trial that would culminate at Southwark Crown Court this year, with both men and Tommy Wright, the former assistant manager at Barnsley, being found guilty of bribery following an investigation by City of London police.