The scandal of Tony Kay
In 1962, Sheffield Wednesday talisman Tony Kay made the biggest mistake of his life. It earned him time in prison – and an unwanted meeting with the Kray twins
Match- fixing furore revisited
It was before Sheffield Wednesday’s top- flight match away at Ipswich Town when Tony Kay placed the bet that destroyed his career. The game was played on December 1, 1962. Kay, the red- haired captain of Wednesday, was 25 years old and the hottest property in English football. The Beatles’ debut single, Love Me Do, was 21st in the charts, Z- Cars was on the television and Alf Ramsey’s Tractor Boys were the reigning league champions. Team- mate David ‘ Bronco’ Layne approached Kay and asked, “What do you reckon today?” It would be a tough game and Kay said that he didn’t fancy Wednesday’s chances at Portman Road. So, Layne made him an offer: “Give me £ 50 and I’ll get you twice your money.” Kay thought that sounded like a good deal. Fifty pounds in 1962 would be worth about £ 1,000 in 2020, and back then it was around a week’s wages for a top- tier football player. Kay, a tough and clever wing- half or wide midfielder, took the opportunity to double his weekly pay packet. Layne also lured another team- mate, Peter Swan. There were a trio of Wednesday players in on the bet and it was a winning one, because Wednesday lost the match. Ipswich scored early in a 2- 0 victory and Kay, despite ending up on the losing side, was named man of the match. It wasn’t an unusual accolade.
At the end of December, title contenders Everton signed Kay for £ 60,000, a substantial sum. It should have been the beginning of an exciting new chapter of his career; instead, it was the beginning of the end. Kay was about to be embroiled in the biggest match- fixing scandal ever to hit English football, involving up to 200 footballers and up to 100 games.
Kay had made his Wednesday debut as an 18- year- old in 1954. The hometown boy soon became a fan favourite at Hillsborough for his tough- tackling, tenacious play. “His obvious strength, speed and determination are all controlled by a shrewd, icy brain,” noted one reporter. By 1960, Kay was club captain and had helped the Owls to establish themselves as a top- six team in the old First Division. In joining Everton two years later, Kay followed former Wednesday manager Harry Catterick to Goodison Park in what was described as a “gigantic transfer splash”.
“It’s going to be a wrench leaving Sheffield Wednesday, as I’ve learned all my football with them,” said Kay. “But I look forward to the new challenge.” Toffees fans took to him quickly – hardly surprising, since it took Kay just six months to help the Merseysiders win their first league title since 1939.
In June 1963, he won his first international cap, scoring one goal and setting up another two in England’s 8- 1 battering of Switzerland in Basel. He was called “the backbone of the side” by the Mirror. “Kay,” said chief sports writer Frank Mcghee, “went into every tackle as if he meant to drive a path right through any unfortunate Swiss between him and the ball, allying the mayhem with the accuracy of a surgeon.”
New England manager Ramsey, who had just left Ipswich, was building a team for the 1966 World Cup. As Kay continued to excel for Everton, many observers were confident he would become an England regular at the expense of West Ham United’s Bobby Moore. But Kay never played for his country again.
That summer, the Sunday People launched an investigation, led by writer Mike Gabbert, into “the biggest scandal the world of soccer has ever known”. The inquiry centred around Jimmy Gauld, an ex- footballer who played for Charlton Athletic, Everton, Plymouth Argyle, Swindon Town and Mansfield Town before a broken leg ended his career in 1960. Gauld, “a shadowy Mr Fixit”, was accused of bribing players to fix games involving various clubs, including Mansfield, Bristol Rovers, York City and Hartlepools United.
Football League secretary Alan Hardaker scoffed at the suggestion of matches being fixed, telling the People: “There is no bribery in football – it is unthinkable.” But the paper presented mounting evidence, week by week, that bribes had been taken to throw games and, as a result, Gauld was fined and banned from football.
If the authorities felt they had cracked the affair, it turned out they had barely scratched its surface. The full extent of the mess only became clearer when Gauld, looking for “one last pay day”, sold his story to the People for £ 7,000 – equivalent to about £ 140,000 today. As well as admitting all to reporter Gabbert, Gauld agreed to gather evidence by secretly recording players confessing to their parts in the scheme. It was one of the first instances of secret recordings being used in this way – and the revelations were incendiary. They involved dozens of rigged games and bribed players, some at the top of the sport.
On April 12, 1964, the People published its exposé beneath the front- page headline: ‘ TOP SOCCER STARS BRIBED’. “They agreed to fix a First Division match,” revealed the paper. “They backed Sheffield Wednesday, their own team, to lose at Ipswich Town, and each won £ 100 in a betting coup.” Large black arrows pointed at photographs of David Layne, Peter Swan and Tony Kay, accompanying the text: “These are the guilty men.”
The People explained that the scheme all started when Gauld approached Layne and asked him if he would consider betting on his own team to lose. If so, Gauld could help him double his money. To increase the odds, the wager would be a multiple across three matches: Ipswich vs Sheffield Wednesday, Lincoln City vs Brentford and York vs Oldham Athletic. Gauld found players from Lincoln and York to participate – now he just needed Wednesday stars on board. Layne agreed to the bet and said he knew two team- mates who might be interested.
“Peter Swan, Tony Kay and myself were in it together,” Layne told the paper after being confronted about the scandal in a café he owned near Hillsborough. “I don’t know what made me do it. I suppose it was the chance of making easy money, but all we got out of it was a hundred quid each.”
Swan also came clean when approached by the People. “All right, I’ll admit the three of us were in on it,” said the centre- half who earned 19 England caps. “But it was months ago. What’s going to happen to us now? This could mean the end of football for all of us.”
Kay initially denied his involvement. “It’s a load of nonsense,” he insisted to reporters that morning as he grabbed the milk from his doorstep. “I would never throw a match, no matter how much was offered. You’ve only got to look at the match reports of the game to see that all the sportswriters said I was the best player on the Sheffield side. Does that look as if I was trying to throw the game or had accepted a bribe?”
In its article, the People admitted that while Layne had run about “like a fool” at Ipswich, trying to avoid the ball, it did not appear that Kay or Swan had deliberately played poorly. Indeed, they said that Kay had “put up a fine performance”. But the paper had him on tape apparently confessing to betting against his team. “It was money for jam,” Kay was heard to say. “As it turned out, I didn’t have to do anything to lose the match – Ipswich got an early goal and that was that. This was money for old rope.”
The ‘ soccer bribes trial’ was held in January 1965 at Nottingham Assizes. Ten footballers were charged with match- fixing: Kay, Swan, Layne and Gauld, plus John Fountain of York, Ken Thomson of Hartlepools, Dick Beattie of Portsmouth, Ron Howells of Walsall and Brian Phillips and Sammy Chapman of Mansfield.
However, Detective Superintendent Thomas Mccullough added that although there were 10 men in the dock, “there might have been 200 or even more”.
The defence criticised Gabbert’s reporting and his furtive use of recording devices, but the judge harrumphed that it was the court trying the players, not the players trying the media. Kay’s solicitor argued that his client’s case was different from the others. “It might be unsporting to bet on one’s team,” said his solicitor, “but the point is whether Kay agreed to ensure his team would lose.”
Ultimately, that distinction didn’t convince the court and all 10 men were found guilty. The judge, Mr Justice Lawton, commented, “It is transparently clear that the law has to pass sentences making it plain as a pikestaff to professional footballers that this kind of conduct is against the criminal law and must be stopped.” Gauld – considered the “central figure” of the case – was sentenced to four years in jail. Kay, Swan and Layne each got four months; the others, between six and 15 months. All of the players received lifetime bans from football.
Kay served 10 weeks at an open prison in Leeds, where the other inmates called him a cheat. Then came a strange twist. Shortly after his release, the former Wednesday star was contacted – via an intermediary – by the Kray twins, who were keen to know exactly how secretly- taped evidence had been used against him, as they didn’t want something similar befalling them. He was too scared to turn down their invitation of a trip to London.
By his own admission, Kay had difficulties adapting without football. “It was all I knew, and all I wanted to do,” he revealed in a 2004 interview with the Observer. He had his wife and four kids to support, and ended up losing his home. Kay got into trouble again over the sale of a fake diamond and fled to Spain after learning of his wanted status in the News of the World. After 12 years he headed home to Blighty and faced the music: a six- month suspended sentence.
“I DIDN’T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO LOSE THE MATCH, AS IT TURNED OUT. IT WAS MONEY FOR OLD ROPE”
His lifetime ban from football was lifted on appeal in 1974 and Kay – then 37 – featured for non- league Skelmersdale United. He did at least get to grace the Goodison pitch one more time, in a testimonial match for Harry Catterick in May 1978.
More than 50 years on, football still hasn’t quite got to grips with betting. In 2017, Joey Barton was suspended for 18 months – later reduced to 14 – after placing 1,260 bets on games over a 10- year spell. He claimed that half of professional footballers in England bet on matches, and called for a distinction to be made between betting and match- fixing. The midfielder also questioned why football is so stringently against betting when it has so many gambling partners.
Kay, now 82, lives in Southport and loves football. He’s active on Twitter, posting about Everton and the grassroots game. He doesn’t like to talk about the betting scandal or what might have been in his career. Some Toffees still regard him as the best player they ever saw, and insist that he would have captained England at the 1966 World Cup if he hadn’t been so severely punished.
“It was unbelievably harsh,” tweeted Kay. “They made an example of us. All I did was have a bet. Can’t turn the clock back, sadly.”