John Terry accused after ‘cash for access’ sting

The England and Chelsea football captain John Terry has been accused of selling access to his football club for secret cash payments of £10,000, without the knowledge of his manager or other club officials.

The allegation against the 29-year-old defender was made in the News of the World yesterday following a sting operation in which three reporters handed over 200 £50 notes to Terry and his alleged collaborator, Tony Bruce, a well-known ticket tout.

Terry, who earns £160,000 a week at Chelsea and is worth £17m according to the the Sunday Times Rich List, hosted the reporters - posing as wealthy businessmen - at the club's training ground in Cobham, Surrey.

They were allowed to watch a 90-minute training session, and after lunch in the canteen were given a private tour of the state-of-the-art facilities, during which they saw Petr Cech playing table tennis, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba relaxing in the Jacuzzi and Joe Cole being treated in the massage room. In the boot room, they claimed to see young apprentices cleaning the stars' boots.

According to the NoW report, the money, hidden in a black folder, was handed to Bruce, but it was made clear that Terry would be taking £8,000 and Bruce's 'cut' was £2,000. Terry also insisted that he would be giving his £8,000 to Make A Wish, the charity that fixes treats for terminally ill children.

Bruce told the three men that further special access trips to the training ground could be arranged. Terry was reported as saying: "Yeah, we can sort that out". But he insisted that the arrangements must be kept secret from anyone else at the club. "If the club finds out, it's a little bit... you know," Terry was reported as saying.

Bruce allegedly added: "If anything ever goes wrong, then you say, 'John didn't know anything about that'. John just can turn round and say, 'Tony Bruce, he shouldn't be doing that'. He can deny it."

The News of the World claimed that Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti was also eating in the training ground canteen at the time of the transaction, "without a clue about the huge sums of money changing hands nearby".

The paper taped the transaction and says the footage is being made available to Chelsea FC officials and to the Football Association.

However, Ancelotti used yesterday's post-match press conference - after Chelsea were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by West Ham - to dismiss the NoW story, saying: "The club, me, the players, have a lot of confidence in John Terry and John Terry did nothing wrong. He was very quiet, very calm, very concentrated for the game. No problem." ·