Fashanu denies match-fix claims

Former Wimbledon and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu has denied a report that he was paid to fix football matches.

Fashanu, who was cleared of match-fixing after a trial in 1997, claims he played along with an attempted “sting” in order to acquire evidence for the police and prove his innocence.

The 41-year-old told BBC Radio Five that he knew that some people “have basically been trying to do a sting on John Fashanu”.

He added: “We had got the information, that is myself and my manager, quite some time ago.”

Fashanu says that he informed police of what has happening before a meeting in which money changed hands.

He added: “I needed to get some form of evidence against them as well.

“Luckily, they gave me, after me saying yes I can do this, yes we can do that, yes I can do everything.

“It got to the point where I was saying I could walk on the moon.

“To be honest, I was quite intrigued as to where we were actually going with this whole thing because it was getting so ludicrous in the end.”