On 31 July 1994, Allardyce was involved in an on-pitch brawl with Hao Haidong in Guangdong Hongyuan's league match with Bayi FC.
Allardyce then returned to England to play for a short spell at Northwich Victoria, before moving to Blackpool, where his father Sam was manager until he was sacked in 1996.
On 19 September 2006, Allardyce, and his father Sam were implicated in a BBC Panorama documentary for allegedly taking "bungs" (bribes) from agents if they signed certain players.
Two agents, Teni Yerima and Peter Harrison, were secretly filmed, each separately saying that they had paid Sam Allardyce through his son.
[1] The final report of the Stevens inquiry, published in June 2007, expressed concerns regarding the involvement of father and son Allardyce in a number of transactions, however found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, stating: ″The inquiry remains concerned at the conflict of interest that it believes existed between Craig Allardyce, his father Sam Allardyce – the then manager at Bolton – and the club itself.″[2] In Summary, the Stevens Report stated: "there is no evidence of any irregular payments to club officials or players, and they are identified only as a consequence of the outstanding issues the inquiry has with the agents involved."