‘Football for sale’ trio plead not guilty

♦ Three men have pleaded not guilty to bribery offences, following The Daily Telegraph’s “Football for Sale” investigation.

Tommy Wright, 52, the former Barnsley FC assistant manager, is charged with two counts of accepting a bribe. Football agents Giuseppe “Pino” Pagliara, 62, and Dax Price, 47, both face two charges of paying and facilitating a bribe.

The three pleaded not guilty to all charges at Westminster magistrates’ court yesterday. All were granted bail. They will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on Oct 22.

The charges follow an investigation by The Telegraph published in September 2016. Wright was sacked by Barnsley in the same month, after allegedly accepting a £5,000 cash “bribe” in a meeting with undercover reporters posing as representatives of a fictitious Far East company.