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By Mike Collett
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The English FA said on Thursday it was undertaking an audit of transfers that take place in England, beginning with last month's January transfer window.
The audit will focus on a random selection of completed moves and will be conducted by Quest, headed by John Stevens, the former chief of the Metropolitan Police.
Quest was also hired by the FA last year to investigate transfer irregularities in England and looked into 362 transfers with 17 of those "not signed off".
The FA confirmed on its Web site (www.thefa.com) that the audit will start with immediate effect.
As well as reviewing transactions in January, Quest will also conduct an audit into those taking place this summer.
The FA's director of governance Jonathan Hall said in a statement on the Web site: "This transfer audit is a very different undertaking to their previous inquiry carried out for the Premier League.
"It will focus specifically on reviewing the FA's processes in respect of the new Agents Regulations, assessing compliance with FA Rules and identifying any areas of poor practice within the industry."
The FA have also set up a "whistleblower" telephone line to report any possible irregularities with transfer deals.
The announcement was made on the same day that the Football League published their report into the fees agents earned between July 1 and Dec. 31 2007.
In total, the report says, League clubs paid 7.9 million pounds ($15.56 million) to agents in the period covered, up from the 6.2 million spent in the same months of 2006.
The 72 Football League clubs were involved in 1,913 transfers in the six months from July to December compared to 1,795 the year before.
($1=.5078 Pound)
