The FA "has been shown potentially crucial text messages that will form part of the evidence" against England women's team Manager Mark Sampson in the "new inquiry" that is re-investigating him over allegations he made racist remarks to two of his players, according to Daniel Taylor of the London GUARDIAN. The FA is "gathering new evidence after accepting that its first two inquiries were insufficient" on the basis that neither of them "had felt it necessary to interview Drew Spence about what Sampson allegedly said to her" at the China Cup in Oct. '15. Spence, a mixed-race player who was on her first England call-up at the time, "has subsequently delivered a statement to the FA to offer her version of events" and the governing body is now aware there are "contemporaneous text messages from that tournament where players discuss what they heard." Those messages "could be crucial if they show any players voicing concerns about alleged comments long before the matter came to light publicly." Amid another day of "fast-moving developments," the FA instructed Katharine Newton, the barrister who looked into Aluko’s complaints about bullying and victimization, to "begin a new process that specifically looks at the fresh evidence" (GUARDIAN, 9/15).
