After more than four tortuous years of investigation into the "bung" affair, Football Association charges were yesterday brought against Brian Clough, Ronnie Fenton, Steve Burtenshaw and Nottingham Forest. But whether they will all pay for their alleged crimes is another matter.

The FA spent five months with their legal experts poring over the Premier League report into the affair before deciding on yesterday's action.

Clough is by far the biggest fish in the net. The former Forest manager is accused of pocketing part of a £46,000 backhander from the transfer of Anthony Loughlan and Neil Lyne from Leicester City to Nottingham Forest in 1989.

Clough's former assistant manager at Forest, Ronnie Fenton, has been charged by the FA with the same offence plus taking part of a £45,000 bung from the transfer of AlfInge Haaland from Bryne to Forest in 1992.

Steve Burtenshaw, the former Arsenal chief scout, has been charged with accepting a £35,000 bung from the transfer of John Jensen from Brondby to Arsenal in 1992.

Forest themselves have been charged with making payments outside FA rules and with misconduct for failing to properly supervise their employees. All the accused have 14 days to respond to the charges prior to an FA disciplinary commission hearing.

Notable by his absence from yesterday's charge sheet was the former Tottenham chief Executive Terry Venables, who always maintained his innocence on this matter. It is also interesting to note that none of the charges levelled against Clough and Fenton relate to the transfer which sparked the whole bung inquiry - Teddy Sheringham's move from Forest, then managed by Clough, to Tottenham Hotspur when Venables was chief executive.

The FA obviously felt there was insufficent evidence to justify anyone being charged over this transfer. The football authorities' problems getting at the facts was illustrated in the cautious wording of some of Premier League report. For instance, on the Sheringham deal it read: "We find it likely though we cannot be sure that part of the cash `from this deal' was used by Mr Fenton to pay for his daughter's wedding reception."

The FA's Director of Public Affairs David Davies, in announcing the charges, said: "The FA is not looking for scapegoats. For too long the image of the national sport has been tarnished by serious allegations. Now charges must be answered. The time has come to bring these matters to a conclusion."

However, the FA's hopes of conveying a get-tough image is likely to be undermined by their inability to impose meaningful sanctions.

Although Clough's possible guilt adds a certain gravitas, the 62-year-old is in frail health and like Fenton no longer works in the English game. So if either men were found guilty, a ban would be relatively pointless, while the FA have no power to collect any fine they might levy.

Of the three individuals cited yesterday, only Burtenshaw is still involved in the English game as chief scout at Queens Park Rangers.

As for Forest, they immediately raised the possibility of taking legal action against the FA to prevent themselves being punished for the alleged incidents which occurred before the current board and owners were at the club.

The precendent for this line of defence was set four years ago by the Tottenham chairman Alan Sugar who threatened to go to court to overturn a points deduction and FA Cup ban imposed by the FA for the indiscretions of a previous Spurs regime under the chairmanship of Irving Scholar, coincidentally now director of football at Forest.

The FA eventually backed down and fined the club heavily instead. If found guilty, it is understood that Forest face only a fine from the outset, but even so the club's chief executive Phil Soar was defiant yesterday: "The charges occurred long before the takeover of the club by Nottingham Forest plc and before any of the directors of Nottingham Forest plc were associated with the club," he said.

"We are seeking clarification from the Football Association and it is our intention to vigorously defend any charges made against the club." There was no comment from either Clough, Fenton or Burtenshaw yesterday.

The Premier League inquiry team of Robert Reid QC, the former Premier League chief executive Rick Parry and the Crystal Palace manager Steve Coppell investigated more than 30 transfers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Their findings were published last September, but until yesterday the only football figure to have fallen foul of the authorities had been the former Arsenal manager George Graham, banned for a year in 1995 after being found guilty of misconduct after receiving £425,000 from the disgraced agent Rune Hauge following the signings of Jensen and Pal Lydersen.

Now Burtenshaw has also been charged over the Jensen deal, though why action against him was not taken when Graham was charged is unclear. The question also has to be asked as to why Forest have been charged with misconduct for failing to properly supervise their employees when Arsenal were not in 1995.

David Mellor, the chairman of the Football Task Force, reacted to yesterday's findings by saying: "Football has to look back and show that charges can be brought about things that happened in the past. It must also look to the future to assure that bungs cannot happen again.

"The exchanging of brown envelopes is as offensive to football supporters as was a similar problem over Members of Parliament."