Football agent representing Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday players is cleared of assault charge

James Featherstone is a director of the football agency OmniSports, whose clients include Blades defender Chris Basham, Owls star Sam Hutchinson and ex-Wednesday coach Gary Monk.

The 42-year-old had been accused of attacking a businessman in the gents' toilets at the Stamford Arms in Bowdon, Cheshire, on March 8, 2019.

Mr Featherstone, of Oldfield Road, Altrincham, and his co-defendant Benjamin Cowgill, now 41, of Stanhope Road, Bowdon, appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court in November 2019 after both men were initially charged with malicious wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, which they denied.

That charge was subsequently changed to the lesser offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, of which both men were eventually cleared by a jury at Manchester Crown Court on May 6 this year.