Redknapp hits out over police raid

The veteran coach lashed out at City of London Police and claimed their dawn raid at his home was only to "raise the profile" of their investigation.

He revealed detectives focused on claims that a football agent had passed part of a transfer fee on to his player client.

Redknapp, named in connection with the England manager vacancy, was one of five men arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

The move was the most dramatic development yet in a continuing inquiry by fraud detectives to root out corruption in football.

Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, 55, Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric, 69, Rangers midfielder Amdy Faye, 30, and football agent Willie McKay, 48, were also detained.

Speaking at a press conference at his club's training ground in Eastleigh, Hants, Redknapp, 60, said he wanted to clarify what happened. He said: "I still feel I was only called in because I have a high profile, I add a bit of a profile to the investigation. This has nothing whatsoever to do with me. What an agent does with his player has nothing to do with me."

Redknapp revealed that only his wife was at his home in Poole, Dorset, when police arrived as photographers from one national newspaper looked on. He learned of the raid when he picked up "hysterical" messages from her on his mobile phone when he touched down at Heathrow after watching a match in Germany.

He said: "I was particularly disappointed that the police should come knocking on my door with photographers from a well-known newspaper. She (his wife) was absolutely petrified and if that's the way to treat someone, that's not the world I was brought up in."

Redknapp said police took a laptop computer away that he bought for his wife several years ago and did not know how to use.