The coach and the £5,000 bribe
Barnsley assistant manager accepts bundle of notes in hotel after agreeing to help fake businessmen profit from player transfers
THE assistant manager of a Championship football club has been filmed accepting a £5,000 cash “bung” after agreeing to help a fake Far Eastern firm which wanted to profit from transfers.
Tommy Wright, who works for Barnsley FC, accepted a bundle of £20 notes handed to him in an envelope during a meeting in Leeds last month.
In return, he agreed to help the agent sign up Barnsley players, and to recommend that the club sign other players represented by the consortium. He would also look out for players at other clubs who the firm could approach.
Mr Wright, who denies wrongdoing, was suspended by Barnsley last night after The Daily Telegraph made the club aware of what had happened.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the manager of Queens Park Rangers, another Championship side, was filmed agreeing to represent the same firm by flying to the Far East to talk to investors for £55,000 a time.
He appeared open to the idea of signing players owned by the firm, despite the possibility of a conflict of interest. He told undercover reporters posing as representatives of the company: “Give me a ----ing player. A good player.” He denied any improper behaviour.
Massimo Cellino, the owner of Leeds United, a third Championship club, held a meeting with the undercover reporters at which he discussed a way that his club could get around Football Association rules on third-party ownership of players.
The spotlight falls on Championship clubs following the Telegraph’s disclosures earlier this week about Sam Allardyce, who lost his job as England manager after giving advice on getting around FA rules, and on Premier League clubs, where eight current or recent managers have been accused of taking bungs. Yesterday Allardyce left the UK to “reflect” on the end of his 67-day England career, saying he had made an “error of judgment” and been “a fool”.
Today’s allegations about Mr Wright are likely to add to calls for an independent inquiry or police investigation into corruption in English football. The
Telegraph has spoken to police and agreed to pass on relevant material.
In an interview with this paper, Greg Clarke, the FA chairman, admitted it lacked the power to root out financial impropriety. He said: “We don’t have judicial powers, so we can’t go and get a court order and do things like that.” He has begun a review of the FA’s disciplinary processes.
The League Managers Association said it was “extremely concerned” by disclosures about bungs allegedly being paid to Premier League managers.
During a ten-month investigation into allegations of corruption in football, Mr Wright was introduced to undercover reporters by two football agents. In a series of meetings, he agreed to identify players who could be “put into” Barnsley, and to help get players to sign up with the Far East firm. When he was told that he would be paid “readies” he replied: “You know where I live.” He discussed the Barnsley players Alfie Mawson (now at Swansea City) and Conor Hourihane, and the Aberdeen player Joe Nuttall, none of whom knew they were the subject of the conversations, and said: “I can just recommend players to you that I’ve gone and seen, and you will have to do your spicy dealing, whatever you do.”
He accepted the £5,000 during a meeting at a Leeds hotel on August 11. He said: “Cheers, just put it there,” pointing at the seat next to him. He left with the envelope in his jacket pocket.
In taking the “bung”, Mr Wright appears to have broken FA rules banning officials from accepting “any consideration” from intermediaries in return for “any benefit, service [or] favour” related to their work. He could have also created a conflict of interest between his job at Barnsley and the work he was agreeing to do for the Far East firm. Instead of finding the best possible players for Barnsley, Mr Wright could have been accused of putting the firm’s interests first by recommending their players over and above others.
There is no suggestion that Barnsley FC was aware of the payment or of Mr Wright’s arrangements with the fictitious firm. A spokesman said: “The club has today suspended Tommy [Wright] pending an internal investigation into these allegations.” A spokesman for Mr Wright said: “Any suggested acts contrary to criminal law or those of the FA and Fifa are categorically denied.”
Leeds United denied that the proposal discussed by Cellino amounted to circumventing the rules. Last night the FA, the Premier League and the English Football League released a joint statement insisting they would investigate the allegations of corruption.
It read: “English football takes the governance of the game extremely seriously with integrity being of paramount importance. Any substantive allegations will be investigated with the full force of the rules at our disposal, which are wide-ranging and well-developed. In addition, should we find any evidence of criminality we would inform and seek the support of the appropriate statutory authorities.”
SAM ALLARDYCE has admitted he was “a fool” to have negotiated a £400,000 speaking engagement deal and advised a group of businessmen on how to “get around” the FA’s transfer rules.
Speaking for the first time since his resignation as England manager, following the publication of a Daily Tele
graph investigation, Allardyce claimed he had only agreed to the deal to help set up a friend in business, rather than for personal profit.
The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Allardyce used his position to negotiate the speaking deal with men purporting to represent a Far East business consortium that sought to profit from the Premier League’s billion-pound transfer market.
Speaking outside his home in Bolton yesterday, before leaving the country for a holiday, Allardyce said: “On reflection, it was a silly thing to do.”
In an apparent reference to the former player and football agent Scott McGarvey, a long-standing friend, he added: “I was helping out someone I knew for 30 years and unfortunately it was an error in judgment on my behalf, and I paid the consequences.
“Entrapment has won on this occasion. An agreement was done with the FA very amicably. I have a confidentiality agreement, lads, and I’m going to go away and reflect on it.”
About the man stepping in as England caretaker manager, Allardyce added: “I’d like to wish Gareth Southgate and all the England lads all the very best.”
There is scepticism in football circles as to why Allardyce wanted as much as £400,000 for a series of speaking engagements, along with first-class flights and hotels, in order to help a friend such as Mr McGarvey.
It has now emerged that Allardyce went further than his statement yesterday in his conversation with Greg Clarke, the chairman of the Football Association, and chief executive Martin Glenn, during which it was agreed he should stand down.
Mr Clarke told The Daily Telegraph: “I said to Sam, ‘ What have you done?’ He just said, ‘Greg, I’ve been such a fool’. It really was a grown-up meeting. He wasn’t in denial, he didn’t try to say, ‘This is being blown out of all proportion’. He took it on the chin and he said, ‘Greg, I’ve let the side down’. ” The FA chairman praised the Tele
graph’s investigation. Mr Clarke said: “Where you don’t have an inquisitive, free press, very dark things happen in the corners of the world, which are hidden. There is nothing wrong with using what techniques you have to use to expose wrongdoing.”
The FA is investigating Allardyce following the story and is being asked to explore further revelations, published yesterday by this newspaper, that eight current and former Premier League managers received personal payments – or “bungs” – in return for the transfer of players to other clubs.
Several commentators and observers have praised our investigation for shedding light on some of the deeply unsavoury aspects of English football.
Damian Collins, the acting chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: “Allardyce’s point about entrapment totally misses the point, because if it wasn’t for these sorts of investigations, the truth would never out. Football is incapable of investigating itself. I would much rather undercover reporters get these stories into the light of day.”
Roy Greenslade, the media commentator and former national newspaper editor, said: “There is a clear public interest justification in knowing that a man employed by the FA is offering advice on how to circumvent its rules. I cannot see how the Telegraph could have obtained the story any other way.” He added: “Allardyce is the FA’s main employee and the recipient of a £3 million-a-year salary (plus bonuses) in a job with a unique national profile. In such circumstances, the paper’s undercover operation is wholly defensible.”
David Bernstein, the former FA chief executive, said: “The hubris of it all is extraordinary. This is a man earning £3 million a year. There’s no question he brought the FA and football into disrepute, and that’s not acceptable. I have very little sympathy.”