Joey Barton, the manager of Fleetwood Town, has been charged with causing actual bodily harm after the Barnsley coach, Daniel Stendel, was left with facial injuries following a fracas in the South Yorkshire football club’s tunnel, police said.
South Yorkshire police said the 36-year-old one-time England international was charged after the incident at the Oakwell stadium on 13 April.
Barton, the former Manchester City, Newcastle and Burnley midfielder, of Fox Bank Close in Widnes, Cheshire, is expected to appear before Barnsley magistrates court on 9 October.
Barnsley announced they had lodged formal complaints with both the English Football League and the Football Association over the incident after the match, which ended in a 4-2 victory for the home team, with Fleetwood having a player sent off after 65 minutes.
Police subsequently appealed for witnesses to the incident, which the Barnsley striker Cauley Woodrow claimed had left Stendel with “blood pouring from his face”.
In the wake of the incident, Barton issued a statement on Twitter in which he wrote: “I emphatically deny all the allegations made.”
Sky television footage showed police stepping in to stop Barton as he attempted to leave Oakwell after the match. Stendel suffered damage to his two front teeth which required emergency dental treatment.