Holy Hell: Redknapp, Mandaric, Faye Arrested in Corruption Investigation

By: Martha | November 28th, 2007

‘arry, in better days. Wow — when it comes to football, the English justice system does not mess around. In Italy, when there’s suspicion of transfer fraud or false accounting, there are investigations, indictments are handed down, things drag out for months and months and, eventually, courts make decisions, which are then often are overturned or dismissed on appeal. In England? In England, they send out 60+ cops in predawn raids and put suspects under arrest. God damn.

Though police haven’t released any names, Pompey confirmed this afternoon that manager Harry Redknapp was one of those arrested. Holy. Crap. The charges are suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, specifically regarding the transfer movement of Charlton’s Amdy Faye, who was also arrested, along with Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric, Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, and agent Willie McKay. Is your mouth hanging open right now? Yeah, mine too.

According to reports, all of this revolves around Faye’s arrival at Portsmouth from Auxerre, and his subsequent move from Pompey to Newcastle. The center of the investigation, though, may be McKay, who not only brokered both deals, but also represents Spurs defender Pascal Chimbonda, who was arrested earlier this year on corruption charges and is currently free on bail.

Obviously none of these people will have to turn to a bail bondsman to get their freedom of movement back but, um, wow. This is some serious shit.

Some Related Stories:

Category: England, English Premier League, Europe, World Football

« The Road To Moscow Resumes II | Home | Seems Winning Isn’t Everything at Bayern Munich »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Laurie

How the hell did I miss the Chimbonda thing? When he wasn't called up for France for close to a year, I figured it was safe to take him off my News lists. Silly me.
Johnny on the Spot

Leicester fans are asking that Mandaric not be granted bail :)
Martha

It's odd that they'd do something so attention-getting and aggressive if all they want to do is just brush it under the carpet -- won't this approach just make law enforcement worse if, in fact, they are going to just make it all go away?
Bernd

Probably nothing will come of this if you understand the massive amounts of money and underworld connections of Mandaric. When they take the logo off the front of the Portsmouth kits, then you know really know the shit is about to clog the fan and render it useless. Until then... la-de-da, la de-lo...