Barnsley next to fire coach over sting
A British newspaper investigation has led to a second football coach getting fired in England.
Two days after Sam Allardyce lost his job as England manager following an undercover operation by the Daily Telegraph, second- tier club Barnsley fired assistant coach Tommy Wright.
Wright was filmed apparently accepting an envelope the Telegraph said contained £ 5000 ($ 8900) from a fake Asian firm to help place players at the northern club. Video footage was released by the newspaper yesterday and Wright was immediately suspended by Barnsley.
“After considering Mr Wright’s response to allegations in today’s Daily Telegraph about breaching ( Football Association) rules over player transfers, Mr. Wright was dismissed,” the club said after a meeting with the coach.
Barnsley said it was “unaware of such matters or involved in any wrongdoing”.
The English Football Association decided to terminate Allardyce’s contract on Wednesday after video showed him appearing to offer advice to fictitious businessmen on how to sidestep an outlawed player transfer practice, and also negotiating a £ 400,000 public- speaking contract to top up an annual England salary of £ 3 million.
English football i s reeling after four days of accusations by the Telegraph after its months- long investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the game.
In yesterday’s edition, the newspaper published an article with video of Premier League club Southampton’s assistant manager, Eric Black, allegedly telling undercover reporters that he knew a colleague at a second- tier club who could be persuaded to pass on information “for a couple of grand ( thousand pounds)” about players to a fictitious company that wanted to represent footballers. The Telegraph said Black denied wrongdoing.
Before the article was published, Southampton said they were aware Black would feature in the latest allegation, and had requested to be sent details. The club said the Telegraph “declined to share any further information”, and they contacted the FA and the Premier League.
Second- tier Queens Park Rangers is investigating footage that appeared to show their coach, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, seeking a fee of £ 55,000 to work for a fake Far Eastern firm that suggested selling players to the second- tier London club.
Hasselbaink denied any wrongdoing, saying he was offered a fee to make a speech in Singapore and did not ask QPR to sign players said to have been represented by the fake firm. QPR said they had “every confidence” in Hasselbaink, and their chief executive and director of football spoke to Hasselbaink to get his version of events.
QPR said it wanted to view an unedited version of the video footage and a full transcript.
Hasselbaink, a former Chelsea and Leeds striker, will prepare the QPR team for the league match against Fulham tomorrow morning.
The Daily Telegraph also filmed an agent accusing 10 managers, which it did not name, of taking bribes linked to player transfers.