Three clubs raided in corruption investigation

Police raided three football clubs today as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in football.


Police said the raids were not connected to Lord Stevens' ongoing Quest inquiry into the Premier League and were 'totally independent'.


City of London Police would not disclose which clubs were involved, or their league status, but said search warrants were executed between 7.30am and 9am today.

A spokeswoman said: 'We can confirm that search warrants were served at three football clubs and the homes of two individuals in connection with corruption in football and its impact on owners and shareholders.

'This investigation is a totally independent inquiry.

'It has not been influenced or informed by the Quest inquiry in any way.

'As this is a live investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.'

Northumbria Police said all inquiries about today's football corruption raids were being handled by City of London Police.

But a spokesman for the North East force said they were aware that 'an operation' had been carried out earlier today by their London colleagues at St James' Park, the home of Newcastle United.

West Ham, Newcastle and who's the other one?

Newcastle is one.

Rangers have also been named in the investigation. The third club remains undisclosed.

Dirty jocks.

Boro I reckon.

They weren't mean't to sign Pogo as he should really be in a mental asylum.

I think Boro or United

Our deals for Yak and Rocky were meant to be a bit dodgy.

More likely Liverpool.

For lying about the offers Torres got.

Why does Rafa lie so much? Is it the beard?

tapping up Tevez, definately United, and also i heard ferguson put a gun to heinze's head after he told him he wanted to go to Liverpool

I would be very surprised if it was Arsenal.

After the George Graham bung fiasco I imagine we would be extra careful with our deals.

Pompey?

Cesc wrote:I would be very surprised if it was Arsenal.

Maybe a sex acts charge.

The third team is Portsmouth. Harry's dodgy dealings?

Blackburn? I'm going to posit the notion that Souness may be the common denominator here.

My idea is completely unsubstantiated, of course.

Boumsong, the Georgian defender, Ferguson, Amoruso, Tugay…

Edit - Ah, just seen Sheff Gunner's post. My bad!

Did Arsenal get in trouble for giving money to Beveren in the past?

HHH wrote:Did Arsenal get in trouble for giving money to Beveren in the past?

No. There was that report on Newsnight last year, but to be honest they did over-dramatise the issue and made more of it than they should have done. I'm not sure if we changed our approach to the club though, I haven't heard of any recent links with them.

HHH wrote:Did Arsenal get in trouble for giving money to Beveren in the past?

No. Newsnight had a report on illegal links with Beveren, but nothing was found on it and it was all above board. The rumors were that it was brought out on a specific date to oust david Dein as one of the FA Council members.

Sheffield gunner wrote:The third team is Portsmouth. Harry's dodgy dealings?

Typical Harry, most of the deals will involve African imports.

So, what do we think the three clubs (Ranger, Portsmouth, Newcastle) have done to prompt this police action? They say it is not linked to the Stevens enquiry but it must surely be something to do with improper transfers.

Sheffield gunner wrote:So, what do we think the three clubs (Ranger, Portsmouth, Newcastle) have done to prompt this police action? They say it is not linked to the Stevens enquiry but it must surely be something to do with improper transfers.

From our end it will be Souness, Fat Fed, and Douglas Hall. Probably something to do with the Boumsong transfer. Knowing that lot it could be any number of things though.

Statement has just come out from Newcastle saying that they are not the subject of the investigation. They also say that if the police or the new owner's internal review reveals that the club were the victims of criminal activity they will take legal action. It would suggest that a former member of the club is the focus of any investigation.

There is something rancid about the manner in which Rangers conduct their business.

Take JA Boumsong, for example. Newcastle and Rangers were both interested in acquiring his registration when he was available as a Bosman. As you know, Rangers signed him with the help of his agent Willie McKay (who represents what's wrong with agents).

Six months later Souness signs him for, what, £8.6 million pounds. At that price you’d expect that a few clubs were actively pursuing him. But as far as I am aware, Newcastle were the only club interested in acquiring him during the January transfer window. Was he worth that lofty sum? No. That doesn’t necessarily entail that the transfer was bent, of course.

Is it plausible Souness helped Rangers out, or helped persons connected with the club - or the player - capitalise on an inflated valuation for a poor defender?

Celtic, too, were involved in some transfer hocus-pocus. Barnes invested about £5 million in Rafael Scheidt who, it transpired, was capped by Wanderly Luxemburgo for the purposes of fraudulently inflating his market value. After all, a couple of caps for Brazil necessarily inflates your worth to the market.

Unfortunately, I can’t confirm the veracity of this statement as it has been deleted by the source (Evening Times), but here’s Dodgy Dave confirming that his previous charges are convivial to his bent ways:

"Graeme has continued to help Rangers since he left by buying players. He is still a fan. Dick helped us by taking Craig Moore off our hands and Walter is, well, Walter.

It even goes beyond that. Graeme's son works for my organisation in Manchester and Walter's son works for Rangers, because they were all pals with my two sons.”

I’ll save the tales of dodgy property deals, investments by crooks, investigations by the South African government, and the ‘mysterious’ disappearance of Dodgy Dave and his transfer of governance of the club during one such investigation for another post.

Would you trust these two (Murray on the left, Bain, his trusted lieutenant, on the right)?

It would appear that the police are investigating two transfers involving these three clubs, Boumsong's and Amdy Faye's move from Portsmouth to Newcastle.

The other strange thing about Rangers is that they have never properly explained how they got rid of their £80M debt, there was something extremely dodgy about that.

Murray wrote:The other strange thing about Rangers is that they have never properly explained how they got rid of their £80M debt, there was something extremely dodgy about that.

Yeah, I'm no finance wonk but in a couple of season they've reported the debt you mention to something more palatable to their shareholders.

Sure, Murray states they received, what, £18 million from the JJB deal, and he insists that they received money for some ex-players: Ricksen, Boumsong, eh…..?

Still it there seems to be a lot of money missing that would account for their debt.

Their creative accountants insist that Ibrox is worth £120 million pounds, or at least the land it sits on is! Yeah right! Govan is not an attractive place for property developers.

Show me the property developer who’s keen to pay £120 million for that Cr@p piece of land and I’ll show him this bridge I’d like to sell him! Kerching!

£120M for Ibrox

That whole area is a complete dump. One of my aunts used to live near there, a bit too near. It was like being in a third world country.

Murray wrote:£120M for Ibrox

That whole area is a complete dump. One of my aunts used to live near there, a bit too near. It was like being in a third world country.

It looks like there's been a war there recently.