Agent boasted that Ferguson threw match for £30k Rolex, court told
A FooTBALL agent told an undercover journalist that Sir Alex Ferguson fixed a football match in exchange for a £30,000 Rolex, a court heard yesterday.
Giuseppe Pagliara, currently on trial for bribery, allegedly boasted that he and Sir Alex conspired to fix the result of a Champions League match between Manchester United and Italian side Juventus.
Pagliara, 64, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, central London, alongside assistant head coach at Barnsley FC Tommy Wright, 53, and fellow football agent Dax Price, 48, on bribery charges – which all three deny. The three were caught up in an extensive investigation by the Daily Telegraph – which ‘published a number of exposés of alleged corruption in english football’ in September 2016.
The court heard that undercover journalist Claire newell posed as a representative of a sports management company. She contacted Pagliara claiming to want to invest in football players in the UK.
The court heard that Price and Pagliara boasted about their links and set up meetings designed to ‘impress’ the undercover journalist. Prosecutor Brian o’neill told the court that at one meeting Pagliara launched into a ‘diatribe’ about Sir Alex saying the two conspired to fix the Juventus match. Pagliara claimed he had ‘thanked’ Ferguson with a ‘gold, £30,000 Rolex watch’.
Price and Pagliara are also said to have made allegations about prominent figures such as former managers Steve McLaren, harry Redknapp and neil Warnock.
Mr o’neill emphasised that none of the individuals named by the accused were part of the prosecution’s case, which did not seek to ‘malign’ them. The trial continues.