Former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric has insisted that he and Harry Redknapp are not guilty of cheating the public revenue.

The pair are up in front of Southwark Crown Court over claims that the executive paid the now-Tottenham boss £189,000 into a foreign bank account in illicit fashion, but Mandaric has restated that the payment was above board.

"I wanted to do something special for Harry because he means more to me than a football manager. This was something as a friend,” he told the court, as reported by Sky Sports.

"If this was something to do with employment, I would have done something entirely different.

“The payments were something special for my friend ... That's all I wanted to do.

"I want to make it absolutely clear that it was completely away from his duties, his bonuses, his salaries ... It has nothing to do with it. It is an entirely different subject," he concluded.

The jury had been previously told last week that Redknapp's off-shore bank account had been bolstered by payments following the sale of Peter Crouch, but both the coach and Mandaric have claimed their innocence.

By Gareth McKnight

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