Barnsley suspend assistant manager over corruption allegation

Barnsley FC have suspended assistant manager Tommy Wright, after claims of corruption were published by the Daily Telegraph.

Wright was "filmed accepting a £5,000 cash bung" by undercover reporters posing as "a fake Far Eastern firm which wanted to profit from transfers," the Daily Telegraph reports.

The payment was "in return for allegedly helping persuade Barnsley to sign players" from the fake firm, the BBC says.

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"Any suggested acts contrary to criminal law or those of the FA and Fifa are categorically denied," a spokesman for Wright said.

Meanwhile, Queens Park Rangers have reportedly launched an investigation into allegations that manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had arranged a £55,000 payment to represent the fake firm to investors.

Hasselbaink has denied any wrongdoing and said he saw nothing "unusual in being offered to be paid to make a speech," Sky Sports says.

"I did not make any promises in return," he said. "I did not and would not recommend the purchase of a player for my personal gain."

Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino has also been named by the Daily Telegraph, which published footage of the Italian businessman "meeting with the undercover reporters" to discuss "a way that his club could get around Football Association rules on third-party ownership."

The Daily Telegraph says Cellino suggested that a fictitious investment company could "become a shareholder in his club, in return for which it would receive a portion of his players’ sell-on fees".