By chance, I was watching BBC News 24 this lunch time when they interrupted their One O’Clock News (also on BBC One) to cover Harry Redknapp’s press conference at Portsmouth today, following yesterday’s reported arrest on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.
The 60-year-old Pompey manager blasted the police for choosing to raid his home at 6am, when he was travelling back from a game in Germany and his wife was home alone and for having tabloid photographers with them. How did they know, he asked… good question.
It was a little strange seeing him appear on the BBC again after so long. He’d refused to appear on BBC TV since a Panorama report recorded an assistant suggesting Redknapp knew about dodgy agent payments. I did wonder if his sudden change-of-mind about answering questions was because the first reporter was from the BBC.
Does Harry Redknapp have a case to answer? Even if the club was involved, it’s been well-reported that he didn’t have total control over bringing players in, so it seems unlikely. What do you think? Is there a cloud over him?
1 comment so far
1 Terry Lane // Nov 29, 2007 at 3:49 pm
No smoke without fire comes to mind. I personally think it’s pretty obvious that some people in positions of authority are always going to be offered bribes, bungs, rewards or gifts - whatever you want to call it.
But like George Graham and Brian Clough before him, Harry Redknapp has been singled out.
Someone at the BBC or in tabloid journalism has placed a mark next to his name.
Why don’t everyone just say - yes we accept bungs, so what?