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.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/28/exclusive-the-corruption-at-the-top-of-the-championship/