A Nigerian player has put former England women national team coach, Mark Sampson in trouble, as the gaffer has been charged with discrimination and racial slur for allegedly refusing to sign the lad due to his ancestral origin, megasportsarena.com reports.
In what could have been a whiplash from his falling out with Nigerian-born female star, Eniola Aluko, which ultimately led to his sack by England, Sampson is said to have stopped the lad in question from joining him at Stevenage because of his links with the West African country.
Aluko claimed Sampson told her to ensure her Nigerian relatives did not bring the Ebola virus to London ahead of England’s friendly against Germany at Wembley in 2014, while another such allegation came from her England mate, Drew Spence, who complained about Sampson asking if she had been arrested before and then suggesting jokingly she had been arrested four times.
Stevenage sources claim they gave the complainant a chance to trigger their own grievance procedure, but they opted not to do so, choosing to go to the FA and Sampson, who is only serving as the club’s caretaker manager, has now been charged with an aggravated breach of the rules over an alleged racially discriminatory comment.
The alleged incident which the FA are investigating is understood to have occurred on transfer deadline day on 2 September during a discussion among Stevenage’s coaching staff about potential transfer targets.
Sampson, who joined the club’s coaching staff this summer in his first job since being sacked by the FA two years ago, and was put in temporary charge in September, insisted the allegations sent to the FA were malicious and designed to discredit him given his chequered past, as it is not the first time he has been accused of making racially discriminatory comments.
It was claimed that the centre-half was mentioned as a possible signing, with Sampson allegedly responding that the club should not recruit him because he was Nigerian, amidst a report by Sportsmail that the FA had opened an investigation after receiving a complaint over a comment he reportedly made during a conversation he had about the player’s possible transfer.
Stevenage told Sportsmail that they had already completed an initial investigation in September and concluded the complaint had no substance, while Hertfordshire Police also opened a probe into alleged abusive WhatsApp messages he had received.
An FA statement read: “It is alleged that a comment made by the Stevenage FC caretaker manager breached FA Rule E3(1) as it was improper and/or abusive and/or insulting.
“It is further alleged that the comment also constitutes an ‘aggravated breach’, which is defined in FA Rule E3(2), as it referenced ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality. He has until 6 December 2019 to provide a response to the charge.”
However, in his response, Sampson vehemently denied the charged and he stressed: “The allegation is untrue and there are four independent witnesses who can confirm that’s the case.”