Capello Quits As Redknapp Cleared

On Wednesday morning Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was facing talk of a prison sentence and, potentially, the end of his career. By Wednesday evening, Redknapp and his former chairman at Portsmouth Milan Mandaric were found not guilty, with the former left as the front runner to become the next England boss – after Fabio Capello resigned over the FA’s decision to strip John Terry of his captaincy. 

One bookmaker has even stopped taking bets on Redknapp to be named the new boss.

The Tottenham boss was found innocent, having denied accepting secret untaxed bonus payments from former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, while he was club manager.

Mr Mandaric was also cleared of two charges of cheating the public revenue over the £189,000 payments.

Jurors heard the Spurs boss received two payments into his Rosie 47 account in Monaco – named after his pet dog.

The defence said the money was an investment made by Mr Mandaric while Mr Redknapp said he forgot about the account and had very little to do with it.

Mr Redknapp, who was close to tears after the decision was made, said the case should never have come to court.

The five-year investigation, of which the last two weeks have been spent in the Southwark Crown Court, is believed to have cost about £8m.

Meanwhile, Capello quit following a meeting with FA chairman David Bernstein and general secretary Alex Horne at Wembley.

The FA said in a statement: ‘The FA’s statement continued: The discussions focused on the FA Board’s decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello’s response through an Italian broadcast interview.’

‘In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio’s resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England manager with immediate effect.’