Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has been accused of fixing a Champions League game with a football agent who rewarded him with a £30,000 Rolex watch.

The claim was heard at Southward Crown Court on Thursday, where ‘corrupt’ agent Giuseppe Pagliara is on trial for bribery.

Pagliara, 64, made the claim in a conversation secretly recorded by an undercover reporter.

The agent also told the reporter that Ferguson worked with agents to make money from transfer deals.

Pagliara is on trial for bribery alongside fellow agent Dax Price and Tommy Wright, the former assistant head coach at Barnsley FC.

Prosecuter Brian O’Neill QC opened the trial on Thursday by saying the men were caught up in the Telegraph’s extensive investigation into corruption in football, which included the sting on former England manager Sam Allardyce.

And it was during a meeting with an undercover reporter in Manchester in June 2016 where Pagliara made the claims about Ferguson.

Mr. O’Neill said, per the Mirror: “Towards the end of the meeting Pagliara launched into what could only be described as a diatribe of Sir Alex Ferguson, accusing him of having conspired with Pagliara to fix the result of a football match between Juventus, a club which Pagliara was associated with, and Manchester United in the Champions League for which Pagliara had thanked him with a gold 30 grand Rolex watch.

"Pagliara went on to accuse Sir Alex Ferguson of having taken money as part of transfer deals. He claimed that he had paid Ferguson before."

The trial also heard claims about former England manager Steve McLaren, ex-Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp and Cardiff manager Neil Warnock.

Mr. O’Neill explained that Pagliara and Price allegedly proposed schemes to become players’ agents, buy them and place them at clubs.

They planned to maintain ownership of a player and profit from his future sale, which the prosecutor alleged was “all to be facilitated by bribery”.

Such third-party ownership arrangements were banned by the FA in 2008 and by FIFA in 2015, the court was told.