Police raided Blues over Cissé deal

Mar 20 2008 By James Cartledge And Mark Cowan

A TOP Premiership agent today spoke for the first time on speculation that the fraud police raid on Birmingham City was over the transfer of Aliou Cissé to Portsmouth.

But agent Willie McKay denied he had done anything wrong in the £300,000 deal that took the 31-year-old Senegalese star to Pompey four years ago.

City of London Police executed a search warrant at the club's St Andrews stadium yesterday morning as part of their ongoing football corruption probe.

Blues bosses have stressed that the raid was not connected to anyone at the club, that no one at the club had been arrested or questioned, and promised to give their full support to the police investigation.

Mr McKay said he believed the Cissé deal was a factor in yesterday's raid but insisted he was innocent.

He said: "Do you think Birmingham City would deal with me if they thought I had done anything wrong?

"Nobody at Birmingham is concerned at what is happening. To describe what happened as a raid is, I think, over the top."

Mr Mckay recalled the support Cissé was offered by Blues and the club's supporters when he lost several relatives in the Joola ferry disaster off the coast of Gambia in 2002. He said he had just wanted to help the player in his time of need.

"I think you might find Cissé had problems. That was one of the main reasons he moved, to help his family.

"I try to help all my players if they ask me. I was working hard doing a lot of business."

Cissé signed for Blues for £1.5 million from Paris St Germain after the World Cup finals in the summer of 2002.

Cissé stayed at Portsmouth for two years before moving on to French club Club Sportif Sedan Ardennes, based in Sedan.

The raid on Blues was carried out by officers from the City of London Police whose fraud squad opened an inquiry, code-named Operation Apprentice, into alleged Premiership corruption in Autumn 2006.

Although their inquiries do not directly relate to the Lord Stevens bung inquiry, it is understood investigators from his forensic intelligence agency Quest were asked in December 2006 to disclose evidence of their £1.3 million investigation.

The Cissé deal between Birmingham and Porstmouth was also named in Lord Stevens' final report last summer. Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric, Charlton midfielder Amdy Faye, Mr McKay and Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie were arrested by police last November.

A spokesman for Portsmouth Football Club said today they were not aware that the transfer of Cissé from Birmingham City in 2004 was under investigation.

A spokesmen for Birmingham City Football Club today declined to comment on the Cissé link.