Football's world governing body FIFA are awaiting an English Football Association report into Alex Ferguson's revelations that he was offered a £40,000 bung by an agent for the Russian winger Andrei Kanchelskis.

The FA's compliance officer Graham Bean will speak to Ferguson as a matter of urgency about the Manchester United manager's claims that he was handed the money in a parcel by Grigory Essaoulenko, who was acting for Kanchelskis in 1994 and is now vice-president of Spartak Moscow.

Ferguson also claims in Managing My Life, My Autobiography, that Essaoulenko threatened to kill the United chairman Martin Edwards prior to Kanchelskis's move from Old Trafford to Everton in 1995.

The FA are not questioning Ferguson's conduct over the money - which, coincidentally, was offered just four months before the first bung accusations concerning George Graham surfaced - as the United manager notified the club straight away and the money lay in the club safe for nearly a year before Ferguson handed it back to Essaoulenko.

Also the Premier League bung inquiry investigated the Kanchelskis transfer and its spokesman Mike Lee says there is no need for it to re-open its inquiries. "There's absolutely no question of any wrong-doing by anyone involved at Mancester United or English football," he said.

But yesterday FIFA confirmed it was awaiting the report of the FA's investigation into the affair before deciding what action, if any, to take. "We will not make any official statement until we receive further information from the FA," said a FIFA spokesman.

Yesterday Essaoulenko refused to comment on the allegations. "I'm not going to react in any way to certain statements by Alex Ferguson in regard to myself and our relations," he said. "I always had great relations with Alex."

Essaoulenko has never been a FIFA-registered agent but as he holds a position at Spartak Moscow, the governing body could still exercise their disciplinary powers over him should they find him guilty.

Ferguson claims Essaoulenko asked to meet him in the early hours of August 23rd, 1994, at a Manchester hotel following a game against Nottingham Forest to give him a "gift" which Ferguson took home.

Ferguson said: "I began to open the parcel, assuming it contained a samovar or another typically Russian present, I was in for a shock.

"What the box contained was money, bundles of the stuff. I shouted for Cathy `my wife' and we stood staring at the piles of cash. After a while we counted it, £40,000 in all. We decided that I should take the box of cash to the club offices early in the morning.

"I carried it to the office of the club secretary, Ken Merrett, and emptied it in front of him. When he had recovered from seeing all those thousands scattered across his desk, and from hearing the story I had to tell, we phoned Maurice Watkins, United's solicitor, for advice.

"He instructed us to lodge the money in the club safe and document what we had done with the club solicitors and my solicitors.

"The £40,000 stayed in the Manchester United safe for nearly a year until Grigory turned up again at Old Trafford." Ferguson handed back the cash, though he says Essaoulenko was reluctant to take it.

Ferguson also reveals how, during a meeting in 1995, Essaoulenko threatened Edwards during Kanchelskis's move to Everton. Essaoulenko allegedly said to Edwards: "If you don't transfer him now, you will not be around much longer."

Ferguson says: "There was no doubting the seriousness of the threat. The meeting ended shortly afterwards, much to our relief. We needed time to consider the implications of that alarming encounter. Obviously Martin had most to think about given the menacing words he had just heard.

" `What are we going to do', he asked our learned friend.

" `Sell him', was Maurice's terse reply and by now I couldn't have agreed more."

Even so, the problems were not over. Ferguson writes that Kanchelskis's contract contained stipulations "that he was entitled to a third of any fee involved and that a further substantial share should go to his former club in Russia, Shakhtyor Donetsk, which caused our dealing with Everton to become a protracted and rather acrimonious saga."

Eventually, Kanchelskis moved to Everton, prompting Ferguson to conclude: "Merseyside was welcome to him."

A record crowd of almost 10,000 will watch Manchester United in the charity match with Irish League side Omagh Town at St Julian's Road today. It is the second of three fixtures being staged in aid of the Omagh Disaster Memorial Fund. Last week Chelsea packed the ground and next month Liverpool are the visitors.