I'm Maefe McClendigan, and this is the Tip-Off, the podcast where we take you behind the scenes of some of the UK's best investigative journalism.

On the 27th of September, 2016, England football manager Sam Allardyce walked to the end of his drive.

There he met a crowd of reporters and amongst the click of cameras he began to speak.

I think that on reflection, it's a silly thing to do but but just to let everybody know, I sort of helped

tell what was somebody I've known for 30 years.

Unfortunately, it was an error in judgment on my behalf and paid the consequences.

It was his 67th day on the job, and his last.

But this story doesn't start there.

The story of how we get to this point begins two years earlier.

My name's Claire Newell and I'm the investigations editor at The Telegraph.

Claire Newell is not really into football. She's not a complete novice. I'm the investigations editor at The Telegraph. Claire Newell is not really into football.

She's not a complete novice.

I mean, she knows what the offside rule is.

Well, yes, but only because I learnt it when I was at school.

But when it comes to dodgy dealings in sport, she's something of an expert.

In 2015, she produced a series of scoops looking into corruption and bribery in FIFA.

So when a source approached her about malpractice closer to home, she knew how big a story it could be.

It was at the beginning of the year, so maybe January or February.

And it was just a snippet of information.

I don't think the source was thinking, oh, this will lead to a story.

But it certainly did merit further investigation and sparked off all kinds of thoughts.

The source told her that two football managers were taking bungs to transfer players.

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