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West Ham director of transfers Tony Henry sparks race row by admitting club don't want to sign any African players because 'they cause mayhem'
Tony Henry told agents during January window they don't want African players
Director Tony Henry said the policy is because African players 'cause mayhem'
West Ham currently have seven players of African descent in their first team
Henry said: 'It's nothing racist at all... sometimes they can have a bad attitude'
By Matt Lawton
West Ham United have left themselves open to accusations of racism and potentially unlawful discrimination after telling agents in the transfer window that they don’t want to sign any more African players.
After being confronted by Sportsmail, the club’s director of player recruitment, Tony Henry, made the shocking admission that West Ham do indeed want to limit the number of African players because ‘they have a bad attitude’ and ‘cause mayhem’ when they are not in the team.
West Ham's director of transfers Tony Henry has confirmed the club's current transfer stance
Lord Ouseley, chairperson of Kick It Out, described an email sent by Henry — and leaked to this newspaper — as potentially unlawful.
Henry sent an email on January 27 — in response to an inquiry about a footballer of Cameroonian descent — to another senior West Ham official and an agent.
In the email, Henry wrote: ‘We don’t want any more Africans and he’s not good enough. I sent Thomas to watch him and the other lad last week and he said no. If Palace take them good luck.’ Sportsmail knows the identity of both recipients but a stipulation before being sent the email was that they should remain anonymous.
Henry was asked if there is a club policy regarding African players. Initially he replied ‘no’, only to be informed that we understand he has told more than one agent in the last month that the club does not want any more African players.
Henry then confirmed it was true and suggested it was a policy supported by club management. ‘Yeah,’ Henry replied. ‘Because we had three and we felt we didn’t particularly want any more African players.’
Asked why, Henry replied: ‘Erm, no reason. It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude.
‘We had problems with Sakho, with Diafra Sakho. We find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem. It’s nothing against the African race at all.
‘I mean, look, there are top African players. There’s not a problem with them. It’s just sometimes they cause a lot of problems when they are not playing, as we had with Diafra. He’s left, so great. It’s nothing personal at all.’
Asked if he thought his view was discriminatory towards African players, Henry asked: ‘In what way?’
Asked then if he thought his comments amounted to a slight on African players, he replied: ‘No. I don’t know what you are trying to get at here. All I said was, look, we have a great lad in (Cheikhou) Kouyate, he’s brilliant, a great player for us, he’s a good lad.
‘But the likes of Sakho have caused mayhem. When he’s not playing … he always wants a new deal. That’s all it was. It was nothing discriminatory at all.
‘I could say we get offered Russian players. I just find with Russian players that they don’t settle in England.
‘It’s like Italians. How many Italians come and settle in England? As a club we are not discriminatory at all.
‘If you’ve got too many, they all sit together and it becomes a situation where you can have problems. But then you can have problems with English players. I don’t know what you are driving at.’
Lord Ouseley was contacted before the conversation with Henry but in response to the 60-year-old former Manchester City player’s email, he said: ‘From my point of view, firstly, that is clearly unacceptable now in football. But secondly it’s unlawful to make a statement like that.
‘It’s clearly discriminatory but giving instruction to someone to discriminate against a person is unlawful.
‘Kick It Out would not expect this from any football club official and I would expect that club to take the necessary action.’
Sportsmail contacted West Ham on Wednesday and this was their statement: ‘West Ham United is an inclusive, respectful and diverse football club. Equality is at the heart of our ethos and values.
‘We were recently given the opportunity to demonstrate the extent of our firm commitment to these values, which are embedded throughout the Club, with a view to achieving the intermediate level of the Premier League’s equality mark, recognised and supported by Kick it Out.
‘We have worked extremely hard over the last 18 months across all areas of the Club and we are confident in our achievements. All West Ham United employees are required to go on equality, diversity and unconscious-bias training as part of our new mandatory training and workforce plan.
‘We take any allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and are now in the process of ascertaining the full facts behind this accusation.’
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Nicked from they who shall not be named:-
