Little info leaking out of the investigation yet although a named arrestee in Newcastle is the MD, Lee Charnley. Otherwise only generalisations about 'men' arrested, suggesting no women..... Yet! However it wouldn't surprise me if she walks away from this, as her connections into the higher echelons of politics and the chattering classes are strong. Also, if I was a conspiracy theorist i might question why the BBC consider a story about fraud and corruption at the top of football should be less important than one about a washed up player getting a ban for placing a couple of bets....... Surely not trying to play it down to protect their friends at the Taxpayers Arena??
I wonder who pays to replace the doors that the taxman knocked in this morning? I just know that it's going to be us. I'll be waiting for the 'Spammer Tax Shortfall' to be added to my Council Tax next year. Will it never end?
I am guessing that even if any HMRC criminal prosecution fails, (which they often do) then there will likely be a civil level of liability that is met and would leave the Spanners exposed to an FA sanction. 10, even 15 point deduction perhaps? We can but dream.....
Several of the clickbait merchants have headlines saying Spurs fans are demanding the Scammers be deducted ten points. This is an utter lie: deduct twenty, just to make sure.
The good news for West Scam is that people are talking about something other than their brush with the taxman. The bad news is that they;re talking about this photo trending on the PerfectTiming subReddit... please log in to view this image
It's been a quiet few day down the Ol' East End. Mostly because the taxman came and cleared out the phones and computers. Still, imagine the surprise of those directors not in chokey when a chippy turned up to fix the doors that got 'put in' and left his newspaper lying around that showed that their only good player, Michael Antonio, had become fed up with being paid 'off the books' and wanted his stamp paying and so he was off. The normally jovial Slaven Bilic was heard to say that he would prefer to manage Kilmarnock Football Club next season.Either that or it was, "I couldn't be worse off running a KFC". Odds on him turning up coaching Walford Town have dropped considerably. You can also get evens in Corals on Lady B doing a stretch and they don't mean Pilates.
Big football clubs must be a ripe for dodging tax. The way transfers are done these days are usually as clear as mud (take the Sissoko to Spurs one for example.... nobody really knows what we have actually paid upfront) with instalments, clauses, extra fees for such and such, agents taking huge chunks and god knows what else. Must be very easy for clubs to hide 'profit' sometimes amongst all this.
West Ham have warned Chelsea target Michail Antonio, 27, he is going nowhere and offering to double the winger's wages to stay with the east London club. (Daily Mirror) ...because that worked so well with Payet, didn't it?
When the past nine months of a club's transfer business has involved... - The majority of Western Europe telling them they're not interested in the summer - The majority of the UK telling them they're not interested in January - The HMRC telling them they're very interested in checking their recent activity ...you would think that West Scam United would have settled for some quiet, low-profile transfer deals. Instead they offered Napoli £30m for Dries Mertens, a mere £5m more than his release clause - and were promptly told to Vaffanculo.
I might put some money on Sturridge to The Spammers this summer. There's a certain inevitability to it, don't you think?
What's the thinking behind that one? Believing that Sturridge and Carroll can't both be injured at the same time?
He is someone that was good once and might even say "Yes" to them if they pay him 'John Sullivan style' - "no income tax, no vat."
Bikic interviewed said that "this fixture reminds me of our last game at Upton Park v Man Utd... it is a Friday night, it's a derby and it's under the OS lights." (Daily Mirror page 60). We'll ignore that the match v united was on a Wednesday night not a Friday night ... and that the match against united was not a derby...and it is not the last match a Upton Park...apart from that it is very similar