Former Premier League striker offered cash for throwing matches in lower league matches, a court has heard.
Delroy Facey was alleged of acting as a middle man between two players who have already been convicted of match fixing. The prosecution claims the player had acted as a “middleman” for them in November 2013.
The 34-year old who also played for the likes of Burnley, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, denies conspiracy to commit bribery. He is standing trial alongside Moses Swaibu, a former non-league player.
It is also understood that lower league games are targeted as there would be very few fans and TV cameras to scrutinise the incidents and the players can easily be bribed as they earn low wages as compared to higher league games.
Prosecutor Nick Mather said: “Football in this case is nothing more than a means to an end to make money. It’s described as the beautiful game but football has an ugly side as well. It’s that ugly side we’re going to be looking at.
“Facey was a former professional footballer. He was a middleman. He was a fixer. He was somebody who identified and cast his net around to find players who might be willing to take part in match-fixing.
“There can be no doubt that they were involved in fixing football matches. Football supporters want their side to win. They want their side to play fairly. They want their side to be the best. In short, this case is about match-fixing.”
The conspiracy came to the attention of the National Crime Agency after initial inquiries by a private investigator who wanted to expose match-fixing led to the identification of Sankaran.
During a meeting with an undercover investigator on November 16, Sankaran is alleged to have made unsuccessful attempts to contact footballers and made reference to an agent named Delroy who used to play for Bolton.
At that point, the court heard, the National Crime Agency took over the investigation, deploying a covert officer to gather evidence. The officer met Sankaran five days later and mobile phones belonging to the defendants, including Facey, were subsequently seized.