Undercover sting leads to multiple English soccer coaches being fired
Reporting from BARNSLEY, England — A British newspaper investigation led to a second soccer coach getting fired in England on Thursday.
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 which the Telegraph said contained 5,000 pounds ($6,500) from a fake Asian firm to help place players at the northern club. Video footage was released by the newspaper late Wednesday 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 on Thursday.
Barnsley said it was “unaware of such matters or involved in any wrongdoing.”
The English Football Association decided to terminate Allardyce’s contract on Tuesday 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 pound ($519,000) public-speaking contract to top up an annual England salary of 3 million pounds ($4 million).
English soccer is reeling after four days of accusations by the Telegraph following its months-long investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the game.
In Friday’s edition, the newspaper published an article with video of 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 it was 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 it contacted the FA and the Premier League.
Second-tier Queens Park Rangers is investigating footage that appeared to show its coach, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, seeking a fee of 55,000 pounds ($71,600) 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 only a speech in Singapore and did not ask QPR to sign players said to have been represented by the fake firm. QPR said it had “every confidence” in Hasselbaink, and its chief executive and director of football spoke to Hasselbaink on Thursday 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 on Saturday. The Daily Telegraph also filmed an agent accusing 10 managers, which it did not name, of taking bribes linked to player transfers.
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