I’M SORRY FOR RACIST JIBE
But TV apology by West Ham’s former transfer chief covers up what he really told Sportsmail
TONY HENRY has publicly apologised for his comments regarding African footballers.
But the former head of recruitment at West Ham committed the embarrassing mistake of trying to blame the Africa Cup of Nations for him not wanting to sign more players from the continent — when the tournament has been moved from mid- season to the summer from next year.
Henry — who was sacked by West Ham for what he said to this newspaper and has now been charged by the FA with misconduct for comments that ‘included reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or nationality and/or colour’ — dared suggest he was referring to only one player at the club.
In the interview broadcast by Sky Sports News last night, Henry went unchallenged when he tried to justify an email he sent to an agent during the January transfer window stating that the club did not want more African players.
‘I just felt, as head of recruitment, I look ahead down the line and I thought in 12 months’ time it’s the African Nations Cup,’ he told Sky yesterday. ‘If we have four African players come the next African Nations Cup we’re going to lose them in January and February, and we could struggle with that.’
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations will take place in Cameroon between June 7 and June 30. The tournament used to be held every two years in January and February.
Henry did apologise. i ‘I’m ‘I’ sorry for what I’ve done, 100 per cent,’ he said. ‘For the first two weeks, honestly, I couldn’t leave the house. I was so sorry for what I’d done because I know I shouldn’t have done it, I know I shouldn’t have said it. I hold my hands up. I was totally wrong. I shouldn’t have said it.’ But he then claimed that what he said in the email was ‘taken completely out of context’ and was ‘never, ever meant to be racist in any way’.
Reflecting on the telephone call he received in January when contacted by this newspaper about his email, Henry wrongly claimed the exchange became ‘ a bit heated’ and he was ‘sucked into the conversation’. He also said he was referring only to one African player. He became exasperated because he could not understand why his comments could be deemed offensive, but it did not become heated. While he only directly accused Senegal striker Diafra Sakho, who left West Ham for Rennes in January, of causing unrest at the club, he stated repeatedly that ‘they’ — Africans — could be a problem. Yesterday he said: ‘I just said look we’ve got one player who does cause problems. I said he has offthe-field problems and I said his attitude isn’t the best… it was never meant to be having a go at any race or any nationality.’
But when asked in January about the email, he said: ‘Yeah, because we had three and the manager as well has said we didn’t particularly want any more African players.’
When asked why that was the case, he said: ‘It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude. We had problems with Sakho, with Diafra Sakho. We find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem. It’s nothing against the African race at all. I mean, look, there are top African players. There’s not a problem with them. It’s just sometimes they cause a lot of problems when they are not playing, as we had with Diafra.’
Asked then if he thought his comments were discriminatory, he replied: ‘In what way?’
‘As a club we are not discriminatory at all,’ he added. ‘ We’re not. It’s just…I think if you’ve got too many, they all sit together and, you know... there can be problems.’
Last night Sky Sports News stood by their interview.