Redknapp charged with tax evasion

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp was charged with tax evasion on Thursday, a spokesman for English prosecuting authorities said.

The charges, which relate to Redknapp’s time in charge of Premier League strugglers Portsmouth, result from a 26-month police investigation into alleged corruption in English football.

Redknapp, who has repeatedly protested his innocence, said he would fight the charges.

“Henry (Harry) Redknapp, the former football manager of Portsmouth Football Club, has today been charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue,” a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said Thursday.

Meanwhile Redknapp’s lawyer, Ian Burton, said his client had voluntarily attended a London police station on Thursday to be charged by officers.

The charges against Redknapp came two days after former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, whom he worked alongside at Fratton Park, was charged with two counts of tax evasion during his time at the south coast club.

The CPS announced Tuesday that Mandaric, now chairman of Leicester, had been ordered to appear before a London magistrates’ court on February 11 in connection with a payment of 295,000 dollars to another person via a bank account in Monaco.

Mandaric was first informed of the impending charges last month, at which point his solicitors confirmed that they related to monies paid to Redknapp.

The CPS’s statement Thursday said the charges facing Redknapp were connected to those they had laid against Mandaric.

“The CPS Revenue and Customs Division decided there was sufficient evidence and it was in the public interest to charge Mr Redknapp.

“He is jointly charged with Milan Mandaric, the former chairman of Portsmouth City Football Club, following an investigation by the City of London Police and HM Revenue and Customs.”

Burton, who insisted his client would clear his name, said: “Harry has cooperated fully with investigators during the course of this inquiry and is confident of a successful outcome to these court proceedings.”

Peter Storrie, the chief executive of Portsmouth, is due back in court on January 20 to answer charges of tax evasion in connection with a signing-on fee allegedly paid to midfielder Amdy Faye when he joined from French club Auxerre.

Storrie continues to be employed by the Premier League basement club, grappling with a financial crisis which has resulted in players and other staff having the payment of their salaries delayed repeatedly this season.

Teams owed money for transfers by Portsmouth, who under Redknapp won the 2008 FA Cup, have also complained of payments being delayed and on Thursday the English Premier League announced they would be diverting the south coast side’s seven million pounds share of television revenues direct to creditor clubs.

As well as pursuing Mandaric, Redknapp and Storrie individually, the British tax authorities are seeking to have Portsmouth wound up because it does not believe it will be able to recover payments they say they are owed by the club. A court hearing is due in February.