Barnsley have tonight suspended assistant manager Tommy Wright after he was caught on camera allegedly accepting a £5,000 cash ‘bung’.
It is the latest shocking claim from a 10-month undercover investigation into corruption in football by the Daily Telegraph, which has already seen Sam Allardyce lose his job as England boss.
And now the second tier of English football is under the microscope after Barnsley’s Wright was implicated.
The Tykes coach was filmed by an undercover team of reporters taking the cash, supposedly in return for helping a fake Far Eastern firm to find players.
During a meeting Wright is told he will be paid in “readies”. He replied: “You know where I live” and added: “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”.
There is no suggestion that Barnsley FC knew what Wright was doing, and a club spokesman said: “The club has today suspended Tommy [Wright] pending an internal investigation into these allegations.”
A spokesman for Mr Wright added: “Any suggested acts contrary to criminal law or those of the FA and Fifa are categorically denied.”
The full allegations can be read here.
On Wednesday night the Premier League, Football League and the Football Association released a joint statement, prompted by the claims made this week by the Telegraph.
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.”
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