FA chiefs are investigating potential breaches of agent rules involving Jermain Defoe’s transfer from Tottenham to Portsmouth in January 2008.
Both clubs and Harry Redknapp, Pompey’s boss at the time, are said to have dealt with an unlicensed agent during negotiations over the ex-England striker.
The matter is being treated as serious, with potentially huge sanctions facing anyone found guilty.
Clubs could be hit with a transfer ban, points deduction or even RELEGATION, while agents and players could be hit with anything from a warning to a fine or ban.
Luton Town were deducted ten points for breaking agent regulations in the same year, but the FA took no action for the Defoe case.
However, the organisation have now reopened the matter and will be “reviewing the arbitration panel award”.
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Tottenham have declined to comment on the matter.
But Portsmouth have stressed the transfer came under an old regime that has long since departed the club.
TalkSPORT quote Pompey as saying: “The signing … occurred under a previous ownership and those involved in the transfer of the player’s registration from Tottenham Hotspur are no longer at the club, having left many years ago.
“The current board and ownership acquired the club in 2017 from the Pompey Supporters’ Trust and club presidents, who themselves formally acquired the club in 2013.
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“The board and the new executive therefore have no knowledge of any negotiations that led to Portsmouth Football Club’s registration of Jermain Defoe in 2008.”
Defoe spent 12 months on the South Coast, scoring 14 league goals in 30 games but was unable to play in their FA Cup-wininng run as he had already played for Spurs in earlier rounds.
He returned to North London after just a year at Fratton Park.
The former England star had five more years in the capital before moving on to a host of clubs including Toronto, Rangers and Sunderland.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
