Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie will stand trial on 20 January accused of tax evasion.
The 57-year-old was at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today, when the date for the trial at Southwark Crown Court was fixed.
It was Storrie's first appearance in court on a charge of cheating the public revenue relating to the transfer of Amdy Faye from Auxerre to Portsmouth for £1.5million in August 2003.
It is alleged Storrie concealed Faye's £250,000 signing-on fee as he arranged for it to be paid to the midfielder via the bank account of an agent, Willie McKay, so that tax and national insurance were not paid.
Storrie stood silently in court as the charge was read out but last month he issued a statement in which he insisted he would defend himself in the "strongest possible terms".
He was bailed after being arrested in November 2007 as part of the joint Operation Apprentice probe with HM Revenue and Customs.
