Henry charged by FA

  • by Staff Writer
  • Saturday, 5th May 2018

West Ham could be hit by yet more damaging revelations this week after it was revealed that the FA have charged former Director of Player Recruitment Tony Henry with misconduct for comments regarding African players.

Henry was dismissed by West Ham at the beginning of February after telling the Daily Mail's Matt Lawton, in reference to the the club's current and recently-departed African players that "we find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem".

The former Director claimed this was one reason why West Ham had deliberately chosen not to pursue African players during recent transfer windows - a policy that he insisted "club management" were fully aware of.


Henry seen with David Moyes, before he was sacked [image: Daily Mail/PA]


However exactly who else Henry claimed was involved was never publicly revealed, although is it understood that he gave the names of individuals who had green-lighted the practice to Mail reporters at the time of interview.

An in-depth FA investigation culminated on Friday with the announcement that Henry was being hit with a misconduct charge, which he had been given 10 days to respond to.

"Tony Henry, former West Ham United FC Head of Player Recruitment, has been charged with misconduct in relation to comments he made which are alleged to be improper and/or insulting and/or abusive," read an FA briefing.

"It is further alleged that this breach of Rule E3(1) is an 'Aggravated Breach' as defined in Rule E3(2), as it included reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or nationality and/or colour."

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David Sullivan, speaking back in 2015 claimed that he hired the former Everton Chief Scout on the basis of his ability to spot British and Irish players such as John Stones and Seamus Coleman plus one particularly-promising Portuguese youngster.

"I chose Tony to help with player recruitment because I thought Everton had a good track record of buying players," the co-chairman told West Ham's website.

"They bought right-back Seamus Coleman for £60,000 and John Stones for £3million, two years ago. This summer they were talking about £35-38million for him. I also went for Tony because he offered me [Cristiano] Ronaldo for £6million at Birmingham about 12 years ago - just before he went to Man Utd."

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