Mandaric no betting inquiry concern

14 April 2012

Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric has predicted the Football Association will drop their probe into allegations of a betting scam surrounding manager Harry Redknapp's move back to Fratton Park from Southampton last December.

Mandaric, who is shortly to leave the club after Frenchman Alexandre Gaydamak bought him out, met with the FA's compliance department along with Redknapp and Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie for a half-hour meeting in London on Tuesday.

The south coast club stressed on Wednesday it was they who requested the meeting to try to bring an end to the ongoing investigations and speculation into the massive £16.7million of bets placed at the time of Redknapp's shock return.

Mandaric, now the club's non-executive chairman, said: "We asked to go to meet them to find out why it's taking so long to resolve the problem. There is nothing to be concerned about at all - I think it will now be OK.

"It has been quite annoying that this has been hanging around, especially when there is nothing there. I believe we've been a victim of bureaucracy - we wanted to clear this."

Redknapp was unavailable for comment but at the time the investigation was announced he told the Portsmouth News: "I don't know anything about it. I have done nothing wrong. I didn't have a bet and that's an end to it."

Chief executive Storrie also flatly denied anyone at the club had a case to answer.

"We requested the meeting, not the FA," he said. "It has been going on too long and we want this closed.

"There has been utter tripe written about this in the media. We have done nothing wrong and hopefully it will be sorted out."

FA spokesman Andrin Cooper said the investigation was ongoing but refused to comment further on the meeting. The FA launched their inquiry after online gambling firm Betfair noticed a huge surge in money being staked on Redknapp just before Pompey confirmed he would be their new manager.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in