Former Chesterfield assistant manager Tommy Wright convicted of accepting £5,000 bribe

Wright, 53, of Barnsley, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on Monday of this week of two counts of accepting a bribe following an undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph.

The charges, which Wright denied, related to leaking commercial information about Barnsley FC players during his time as assistant manager at the club in 2016.

Wright, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, claimed he accepted the £5,000 as a “consultancy fee for his professional opinion of players.”

But he had not submitted any invoices for the work, the national broadsheet reports.

Two football agents, Giuseppe Pagliara, 64, of Bury, and Dax Price, 48, of Kent, were convicted of two counts of paying and facilitating a bribe as part of the same investigation.

Jurors returned majority verdicts on Wright and Price, while Pagliara was found guilty on December 12.

Wright was assistant manager to current Spireites boss John Sheridan during their first spell at the club when they won the League Two title in 2011 and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in 2012.

Wright returned to the north Derbyshire in September 2017 as part of Jack Lester’s backroom staff at the Proact.

The three men were bailed until Tuesday when a sentencing date will be fixed.