Striker jailed for match-fixing
A FORMER Premier League striker has been jailed for twoand-a-half years after becoming the highest-profile player to be convicted of match-fixing allegations.
Delroy Facey, 35, who played for Bolton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court earlier of conspiracy to bribe non-league players.
He had denied any wrongdoing during a three-week trial, claiming he thought two corrupt businessmen offering him up to £15,000 for his part in the plot were “class clowns” whom he decided to “humour”.
Judge Mary Stacey said Facey’s offences struck “at the very heart of football”. “You have been a role model, but you have abused that position,” she added.
The trial heard that Facey urged a footballer at a struggling non-league club to make some “easy money” by fixing the result of a match. He also told a contact that some Football Conference teams would “do” a game in return for payment.
Facey’s co-accused, former non-league player Moses Swaibu, of Bermondsey, south London, was convicted of the same charge. Judge Stacey, sentencing both men, said: “It’s about the fans of the teams involved, the families who follow the fortunes of their teams with passion, loyalty and devotion.
“They assume that all the players in those teams will be sharing in that and playing their hardest and best.”