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Delroy Facey
has been convicted of conspiring to bribe players in a match-fixing plot
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Delroy Facey,
35, who played for Bolton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, has
been jailed for two-and-a-half years after becoming the highest-profile player
to be convicted of match-fixing allegations.
Facey was found guilty at Birmingham Crown Court
earlier of conspiracy to bribe non-league players.
He had denied any wrong-doing during a three-week
trial, claiming he thought two corrupt businessmen offering him up to £15,000
for his part in the plot were "class clowns" whom he decided to
"humour".
Press Association report continues:
Judge Mary Stacey said Facey's offences struck
"at the very heart of football".
"You have been a role model, but you have abused that
position," she added.
The trial heard that Facey urged a footballer at a
struggling non-league club to make some "easy money" by fixing the
result of a match. He also told a contact that some Football Conference teams
would "do" a game in return for payment.
Facey's co-accused, former non-league player Moses
Swaibu, of Tooley Street, Bermondsey, south London, was convicted of the same
charge.
Judge Stacey, sentencing both men, said: "It's
about the fans of the teams involved, the families who follow the fortunes of
their teams with passion, loyalty and devotion.
"They assume that all the players in those teams
will be sharing in that and playing their hardest and best.
"It's also about the employees and staff,
groundsmen, coaches, the cleaners, even the owners and share-holders, the match
stewards - many of whom will have been volunteers.
"You have betrayed all that trust, all that
confidence, and it's like a cancer at the heart of football."
She added: "Your behaviour strikes at the very
heart of football and the concept of gamesmanship.
"It crossed my mind that so many of the different
pieces of terminology in everyday speech we use, in fairness and justice, are
used in football - things like 'it's a fair game', or 'a level playing field'.
"Fairness is at the heart of football, and the
opportunity of everyone to do their best, and your behaviour has struck right
at the heart of that."
She said the pair were "both willing
participants" but that Facey had been "far more the initiator and
prime-mover, expending far more of your time on this enterprise - even when you
were at work".
Judge Stacey added: "Both of you, to slightly
different extents, have lived the dream of professional football, as is every
small boy's dreams.
"You, Delroy Facey, played not only in the
Premiership but also internationally for Grenada and had the opportunity to
work with managers such as Sam Allardyce and Sven Goran-Eriksson, and so many
people would have given their eye teeth to play football at that professional
standard that you had."
Turning
to the reasons why both men had committed their crimes, she concluded: "In
both cases, your motivation was financial greed."
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