West Ham are investigating claims that the club has a transfer policy against signing African footballers, following quotes attributed to director of recruitment Tony Henry.

The accusations come after an email was leaked to the Daily Mail where, having been offered a player of Cameroonian descent, Henry replied: “We don’t want any more Africans and he’s not good enough. I sent Thomas to watch him and the other lad last week and he said no. If Palace take them good luck.”

Following the sales of Andre Ayew and Diafra Sakho this month, the West Ham squad includes three internationally declared African players and a further three Europeans with African heritage.

When challenged on his comments, Henry denied there was a club policy in place regarding African players, and said to the Daily Mail when asked why he had taken such a stance: “because we had three and we felt we didn’t particularly want any more African players.

“No reason. It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude.”

A West Ham United spokesman told Standard Sport: “West Ham United is an inclusive, respectful and diverse football club. Equality is at the heart of our ethos and values.

“We were recently given the opportunity to demonstrate the extent of our firm commitment to these values, which are embedded throughout the Club, with a view to achieving the intermediate level of the Premier League’s equality mark, recognised and supported by Kick it Out.

“We have worked extremely hard over the last 18 months across all areas of the Club and we are confident in our achievements. All West Ham United employees are required to go on equality, diversity and unconscious-bias training as part of our new mandatory training and workforce plan.

“We take any allegations of discrimination extremely seriously and are now in the process of ascertaining the full facts behind this accusation.”

FULL TONY HENRY TRANSCRIPT

“Because we had three and we felt we didn’t particularly want any more African players.”

When questioned why, Henry said: “Erm, no reason. It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude.

“We had problems with Sakho, with Diafra Sakho. We find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem. It’s nothing against the African race at all.

“I mean, look, there are top African players. There’s not a problem with them. It’s just sometimes they cause a lot of problems when they are not playing, as we had with Diafra. He’s left, so great. It’s nothing personal at all.”

When pressed as to whether he thought his comments were discriminatory, Henry replied: “In what way?”

Asked if he thought he comments were derogatory towards African players, Henry added: “No. I don’t know what you are trying to get at here. All I said was, look, we have a great lad in (Cheikhou) Kouyate, he’s brilliant, a great player for us, he’s a good lad.

“But the likes of Sakho have caused mayhem. When he’s not playing … he always wants a new deal. That’s all it was. It was nothing discriminatory at all.

“I could say we get offered Russian players. I just find with Russian players that they don’t settle in England.

“It’s like Italians. How many Italians come and settle in England? As a club we are not discriminatory at all.

“If you’ve got too many, they all sit together and it becomes a situation where you can have problems. But then you can have problems with English players. I don’t know what you are driving at.”