Hamburg - Werder Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro has been linked with a bung affair involving transfer fees that has already led to the resignation of club chief executive Juergen Born, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported Sunday. Born resigned on Friday under pressure from the club's board after it was reported that the 68-year-old had received 50,000 dollars in bungs from the transfer of Roberto Silva to Bremen in 2001 while his son Maximilian Born got between 50,000 and 100,000 dollars for his involvement in the contract extension of Nelson Valdez.
In both cases, Pizarro's advisor Carlos Delgado transferred the money, and the striker is now under pressure himself.
Until now, Pizarro, who is on loan to Bremen from English Premier League club Chelsea, has claimed that he was not an agent in the Image firm now being investigated by Peruvian tax officials.
Instead, he claimed he was only a silent partner in the firm represented by Delgado, holding 42,800 shares.
However, the Bild am Sonntag claims it has documents in its possession showing that Pizarro received 30 per cent of the transfer rights from Silva's move.
Players are banned from working as agents, meaning Pizarro could face a lengthy ban.
"The board has called on the executive to check with FIFA what the exact regulations are," Bremen chairman Willi Lemke told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
It remains unclear if having shares in an an agency constitutes working as an agent under FIFA regulations.
Bremen sports director Klaus Allofs said he remained confident that Pizarro, the club's top scorer with 19 goals this season, had done nothing wrong.
"I believe Claudio that he was never involved in activities. His shares in Image is an investment but we will have to look exactly at what happens in the coming weeks."
