Home And Away | Death, taxes and football’s greed the three certainties in life as Premier League clubs investigated
Newcastle’s managing director Lee Charnley is arrested as West Ham also come under microscope
This wasn’t the script Newcastle United fans had in mind as they celebrated a return to the top flight. The first team bus to arrive at St James’ Park after the club bounced straight back to the English Premier League decanted not stars but law enforcement officers from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, aka the tax authorities.
A replica raid by warrant-waving officers was taking place simultaneously at another iconic citadel 300 miles away, the London Olympic Stadium, where investigators rummaged through the offices of West Ham United, seizing computers, mobile phones and files.
More than 180 tax officials swooped on the clubs’ stadiums and training grounds, as well as other addresses across the UK and France.
Newcastle’s managing director, Lee Charnley, was arrested at home along with several others “working within the professional football industry” in Marseilles.
Tax cops from both countries are probing a serious tax fraud – understood to be in the region of £5 million (HK$50.2m) – committed during transfers of players between French clubs and Premier League clubs.
