Former West Ham head of recruitment Tony Henry banned for a year

Tony Henry, the former director of player recruitment at West Ham, has been banned for a year by the FA over comments he made about African players.

In January, Sportsmail exclusively revealed that Henry had sent an email to an agent telling him the Premier League club had no desire to sign any more African footballers during that month's transfer window.

When contacted by this newspaper and asked to explain the email, he tried to justify his stance by claiming that African players 'have a bad attitude' and 'cause mayhem' when they are not in the team.

His comments sparked outrage and caused considerable embarrassment to West Ham, who moved quickly to condemn Henry's comments as 'unacceptable' and sacked him. After a lengthy investigation, on Thursday the FA banned him for a year for misconduct.

A statement released by the FA read: 'Tony Henry, former West Ham United FC Head of Player Recruitment, has been suspended from all football and football related activity for 12 months and must attend an FA education course.

'Mr Henry admitted a misconduct charge in relation to comments he made that were improper and/or insulting and/or abusive and included reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality.'