Birmingham City bosses Brady and Sullivan arrested as part of corruption investigation

They were questioned by City of London Police on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, as the economic crime unit made their second visit to St Andrew's in three weeks.

David Sullivan (left) and Karren Brady: Questioned by City of London Police today

Brady and Sullivan, who have run Birmingham for 15 years, were later released on bail, joining Portsmouth's manager Harry Redknapp and chief executive Peter Storrie, plus Senegalese player Amdy Faye, currently on loan at Rangers from Charlton, Tottenham defender Pascal Chimbonda, agent Willie McKay, Leicester City chairman Milan Mandaric and an unnamed 61-year-old from Manchester.

The personal involvement in the inquiry of Brady, 39, the most high-profile female administrator in the Premier League, and Sullivan, 59, who made his fortune in the sex industry before buying the Midlands club with the Gold brothers, is a major surprise as Birmingham have not been particularly under the spotlight during the long-running inquiries.

Brady, mother of two young children, has a huge workload even after recovering from a major operation in February 2006 following the discovery of an aneurysm in her brain.

In addition to her Birmingham duties, she is also a non-executive director of Sport England, Mothercare and Channel Four and chairman of Kerrang Radio.

When the City of London visited Birmingham on March 19, the club put out a statement that they were co-operating fully with the inquiries which relate to an unconnected third party.

The documents taken away 21 days ago concerned the £300,000 transfer of Aliou Cisse from Birmingham to Portsmouth in 2004, which was one of the 17 transfers that Lord Stevens was unable to sign off following his 15-month Premier League bung inquiry that examined 362 moves.

The Cisse deal was negotiated by bailed agent McKay, as were two other transfers on the Stevens blacklist — Jean Alain Boumsong's £8million move from Rangers to Newcastle in 2005 and the bailed Faye's transfer from Portsmouth to Newcastle in the same year.

The pattern of the police work includes raids on all the clubs involved in those McKay transactions.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and believes he is a victim of a witchhunt. The police inquiry has much more power and a far wider remit than the Stevens team.

The police statement said: 'A 59-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman were today arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, as part of the City of London Police's ongoing investigation into football corruption.

'They have been released on bail. Seven other people remain on bail in connection with the investigation.'