Graham Taylor claims: Ex-player Richie Moran s tands by claim FA told the then England manager to put 'quota' on black players

The former footballer at the centre of the controversy over whether Football Association officials told Graham Taylor not to pick too many black players in the England team stands by his assertion that he believes he heard Taylor make this statement.

Richie Moran, 51, who gave the story to author Emy Onuora, told The Independent that he had a memory of a conversation with Taylor, around 15 years ago, in which he understood the former England manager to be suggesting that two FA officials had issued an unofficial edict.

Taylor has denied that he told Moran, who played for Birmingham City in a brief professional career, that certain FA officials asked him to limit the number of black players in the England team or that the FA had ever interfered in team selection.

Moran, in Liverpool for the launch of Onuora’s book Pitch Black, is a public speaker on race issues and has given talks at Leicester University, Goldsmiths College and Bristol University. He is an author himself and says he was invited by a police officer to speak at an anti-racism event at Watford’s Vicarage Road ground 15 years ago, when he says he encountered Taylor and the alleged conversation took place.

Moran said his memory of the conversation was that Taylor told him certain FA officials had requested he not select too many black players in the national team. There is no suggestion that Taylor acted on the alleged suggestion or that his team selection was made along racial lines.

Taylor selected a number of prominent black players of that era and was responsible for the development of John Barnes, among others, when he was manager at Watford. He selected many black players as England manager for the 1992 European Championship and the 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Moran said he published the allegation himself in a travel book he wrote around 10 years ago. He said: “I have written to Gordon Taylor [chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association] about it. I have a cease-and-desist letter from the FA [on the issue]; the copy of the letter is stored in a friend’s loft somewhere. I mentioned it when I spoke at a conference at Highbury.”

He added: “I never intimated Graham Taylor was racist or adhered to what he was told. He said during the conversation with me that he was never going to admit this [in public]. I am happy for people to sue me for the simple reason that I am telling the truth. It is not the sort of thing I would forget. Afterwards my girlfriend of the time, who wasn’t interested in football, said, ‘Who was that?’ I wasn’t surprised at what he told me.

“It was the 1999-2000 season. I had been invited to be a guest speaker. It was a conference on anti-racism and I was invited by a policeman. It was quite typical of that kind of event, with the usual dignitaries. He [Taylor] told me in the course of the conversation. He told me about the abuse his wife had [when he was England manager] and the fans surrounding her car, and how his two daughters were abused in the street.

“When he came out with this [the story about the unofficial FA edict on black players] he said, ‘I am going to tell you something now. I am never going to admit to this. If it ever comes out you will be sued. I was told by two members of the FA’.”

Moran said he offered to Taylor two names of high-ranking FA officials he suspected of being responsible.

Moran said: “He [Taylor] said, ‘I am not prepared to say. I was told in no uncertain terms not to pick too many black players for the national side’.”

Taylor was contacted last night but did not wish to comment any further on his previous statements, in which he has denied the allegations in their entirety.