Is it allowable under FA rules for someone to manage the England team from Ford Open Prison?
The HMR&C campaign against different aspects of football fraud, tax avoidance, money laundering and, soon, illegal insider betting activity is parallelling along on numerous fronts - Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, Rangers FC, Portsmouth FC, and other potential routes of investigation still to be unearthed via Quest and the News of the World scandals etc etc.
Football needs to get real as their 'in-the-loop' focus on untouchable hyperrealities is in for a continued rude awakening - the HMR&C are on a strategic medium-term drive to clean up black and black/grey market football.
Two of these issues reached a conjunction in Southwark Crown Court yesterday.
Harry Redknapp earned £3 million per year in 2002, increasing to £4.2 million per annum when Pompey reached the Premier League.
We know of NO OTHER FOOTBALL MANAGER IN THE WORLD who was receiving this level of wage at that time...
... not Ferguson, Capello, Mourinho, Sven-Goran Useless.
And for a second tier team initially!!
He obviously deserved the award of Freeman of the City of Portsmouth for the Fixed FA Cup Final victory over Cardiff City refereed by one Mike Dean.
But did he deserve it for taking so much money out of the club (asset stripping, we would call it), for the resulting sale of half a squad, for the decline that has seen six owners of various shades of criminality and from various global mafiosi mis-run the club in the last two years, for the rampant insider gambling undertaken at the club when he was manager, for the fact that the HMR&C issued a winding-up order against Pompey yesterday?
Telegraph: "Staff and players at Portsmouth will not receive their January wages on time... the club's bank account is now frozen."
An aside are the issues of the £## million bet by one ####### ###### ####### at one bookmaker in ######### in one season or the ##### property empire in the capital as these things are not illegal.
Mandaric, Redknapp and Storrie are the primary reasons that Portsmouth FC is merely a shell of its former self.
But who needs enemies when your friends produce court narratives like the following from Mandaric:
"But I never had a relationship as I had with Harry."
We bet you didn't, sir!!!
And while we're at it, we are quite partial to $145K gifts for no reason whatsoever, if ever the money is burning a hole in your pocket...
Is it any wonder that Jamie Redknapp is looking so concerned?
When a result is needed (to put it in football parlance), the state and the judiciary work together - witness the four year jail term for the tweeting non-rioter from Northwich.
For the HMR&C to be taking on the likes of Redknapp, Murray and, in particular, Mandaric suggests that they mean business with The Business.
There is too much riding on the outcome with respect to HMR&C, Quest and the police investigation team, the EPL white corruption campaign, the pressure from the Astonishing Michel Platini and UEFA both on club debts and club illegalities, and even the BBC who aired the original Panorama programme that sparked the whole kaboodle.
"Ensuring tax is paid on time should be at the centre of a football club's business strategy just like any other business," said an HMR&C spokesperson.
"Anyone that regards paying tax as an optional extra, or that uses tax collected from employees or customers as working capital, is potentially heading for trouble."
A Tiny Tip Of An Immense Iceberg...
British Footballing Omerta Is Cracking - It Is Everyone For Themselves Amongst The Antisocials.
Truly.
Football Fans Should Be Happy.
