Three clubs raided by police
Newcastle United's home ground St James' Park
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Monday, 16, Jul 2007 10:37
Three professional football clubs have been raided today in connection with corruption in football.
The investigation, led by City of London police, centres around Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers.
Search warrants were served on the three clubs and also two individuals between 07:30 and 09:00 BST "in connection with corruption in football and its impact on owners and shareholders".
Northumbria police confirmed that "an operation" took place at St James' Park – the home of Newcastle United – this morning.
A statement on the club's website said it was not itself "the subject of the investigation".
Meanwhile Rangers said they had been asked by the City of London police to cooperate with their investigation and had done so, "extending every cooperation to police".
A statement from the club concludes: "We have been requested by police not to comment further while the investigation is on-going."
The third club involved is Portsmouth, which confirmed it "cooperated fully" with a police "search" this morning.
The raids come only a few weeks after the results of the Lord Stevens inquiry, known as Quest, were published.
As part of that announcement, 17 transfers involving several big clubs in the Premiership were not "signed off" by the inquiry.
However City of London police have stressed that today's raids were not "influenced or informed by the Quest inquiry in any way".
"These searches are part of the force's ongoing investigation into football corruption," City of London police said.
"As this is a live investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."