LOWER league football games were targeted in a match fixing plot, a court heard.

Ex-Bolton Wanderers striker Delroy Facey, 34, acted as a middleman for two men who have already been convicted of match-fixing, it is claimed.

The former Premier League footballer, who also played for West Bromwich Albion and Hull City, is standing trial alongside non-league player Moses Swaibu at Birmingham Crown Court accused of conspiring together with others to commit bribery between November 1 and 27, 2013.

Match-fixers Chann Sankaran, from Singapore, and Krishna , of Hawthorn Road, Hastings, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery at a previous trial, the court heard.

Opening the trial prosecutor Nick Mather alleged Swaibu, who played at a semi-professional level between 2009 and 2014 including stints at Whitehawk FC, was one of the players they had tried to corrupt.

The Crown claims the plot - which aimed to profit from rigged bets - targeted the lower leagues because of the high level of scrutiny surrounding the Premier League.

Mr Mather told jurors they would not need to know anything about football to try the defendants and said the sport was used as a chance to make money.

He said former Whitehawk FC defender Michael Boateng, of Davidson Road, Croydon, was also found guilty at a previous trial and that there was no doubt an agreement to fix lower league matches occurred.

"This case is not about whether this scheme existed. The issue for you to decide is whether you are sure that Delroy Facey and Moses Swaibu were a part of that agreement,” he added.

Facey, 34, of Woodhouse Hill, Huddersfield, and 25-year-old Swaibu, of Tooley Street, Bermondsey, south London, deny the charges.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.