I'm innocent, my wife was petrified and I wasn't even home: furious Pompey boss Harry blasts police over dawn raid

The Portsmouth manager was arrested by officers investigating corruption in football after driving to Chichester police station before being released on bail last night.

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Officers also searched his house at 6.30am and removed a computer which Redknapp claimed had hardly been used.

Redknapp said: "I went to watch a game on Tuesday night in Germany and travelled back on Wednesday morning. When I got back, I had my wife on the phone leaving hysterical messages about the police coming round that morning. She was petrified. Why could I not have just had a phone call and gone down to the police station in the afternoon is beyond me."

Redknapp maintained that the whole case was based on one agent and a payment that had been made to a player.

The 60-year-old insisted he was not involved, had never heard of agents paying money to their players and had been picked out by police just to add credence to their investigations.

He said: "I think I added a bit of profile to the investigation. The whole thing has nothing to do with me.

"The crux of the matter was all about a player who had been paid an agent's fee which had allegedly been paid to the player."

Redknapp was one of five football figures — along with Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie, former Pompey player Amdy Faye, exchairman Milan Mandaric and agent Willie McKay — arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

In a further twist, the City of London force — who specialise in cases of fraud — are understood to have widened their investigations to include the affairs of a former Premier League boss.

Leicester chairman Mandaric has promised to offer his "full and total support" to police after being questioned yesterday.

A spokesman for Mandaric said: "I can confirm that on Wednesday morning Mr Mandaric was asked to assist police with their enquiries into a matter dating back to 2003 at his former club Portsmouth.

"Mr Mandaric made himself readily available and fully cooperated with the police enquiry.

"While the investigation remains ongoing, Mr Mandaric will continue to offer his full and total support to the police and will refrain from making any further public statement at this time."

The arrests are part of an City of London Police's ongoing inquiry into alleged corruption.

The men were held as officers carried out raids on 12 locations across the country.

Redknapp flew into Gatwick airport after watching Rangers' 3-2 defeat by Stuttgart in Germany on Tuesday night in the Champions League. He then drove to Chichester police.

Police are believed to be examining the transfer of Faye, a Senegal international midfielder, from Auxerre to Portsmouth in 2003.

The inquiry has been ongoing for some time and a 61-year-old man was held in May on suspicion of money laundering and a 28-year-old man — Spurs' Pascal Chimbonda — was questioned in September.