A man from Upchurch is accused of arranging a bribe with the assistant head coach of a Championship club.

The charges came following the same investigation which lead to Sam Allardyce resigning as England boss in 2016.

Dax Price 48, of Upchurch is accused of two counts of paying and facilitating a bribe at the start of his trial at Southwark Crown Court.

He was one of two players' agents who was approached by undercover Telegraph reporter Claire Newell and her team who set up a fake German Mayfair-based company to carry out the investigation.

She told Price and Giuseppe 'Pino' Pagliara , 64, of Bury, Greater Manchester, that she wanted to invest in football players, jurors heard.

The court was told that they arranged for a £5,000 bribe to be handed in an envelope to former assistant head coach for Barnsley, Tommy Wright, who played top flight football for Leeds, Leicester City, Oldham and Middlesbrough.

The pair accused also said he needed further payment in September 2016, the court heard.

Wright, of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, denies two counts of accepting a bribe.

Price and Pagliara were recorded by Claire Newell at several meetings. On one occasion the jurors heard Price told her "it’s not for the morally correct".

During the trial, Brian O’Neill QC, prosecuting, read out transcripts of the first two meetings in May 2016.

Describing the first meeting outside a hotel in Belgravia, central London, Mr O’Neill said: “Mr Price said, ‘between the pair of us we are in virtually very club’.

“There came to a point in the meeting when Claire Taylor (Newell's undercover name) confirmed at Pagliara’s request that she was interested in proceeding and when she said that the first two defendants began to speak explicitly about corruption and their willingness to participate in it."

The pair tried to “impress” Claire Newell by arranging meetings with former England coach Steve McClaren, ex Spurs boss Harry Redknapp and footballer Kanu, prosecuter Mr O’Neill told the court.

Pagliara also claimed Sir Alex Ferguson had conspired with him to fix a match between Manchester United and Juventus and thanked him with a gold £30,000 Rolex watch.

Price, Pagliara and Wright deny all charges.

The trial continues.

To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne