Harry Redknapp says betting allegations have been exposed as 'the rubbish they are' after newspaper sting operation

Redknapp was accused of failing to report an instance when his players bet on a match

Harry Redknapp (AFP)

Harry Redknapp says people have seen the newspaper allegations of turning a blind eye to players betting on matches “as the rubbish they are” and hopes he can now move on from the saga.

The former West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers manager was implicated in the Daily Telegraph’s sting operation, which led to Sam Allardyce losing his job as England boss, but Redknapp refutes claims made against him.

Redknapp, who managed the Jordan national team this year, was accused of failing to report an instance when his players bet on a match in which they were playing, a direct break of FA rules.

“I’m supposed to have known players I once managed had a bet in a game we can’t name for legal reasons,” he wrote in his regular Evening Standard column on Thursday.

“Well, I’m telling you they never did. This guy told me he knew a few of the lads and had a bet on a game involving one of my teams. He said a few of the players had done it and I just replied ‘they’d all had a bet’ but I wasn’t even listening to him.

“I’d been there for three hours and just wanted to get home. I went along with what this guy was saying — which of course I shouldn’t have done in hindsight but then again you don’t expect what you say in a conversation like this to be recorded — and if it really was true, where is the evidence? There would be a bet receipt of some form somewhere.”

Redknapp claims the undercover journalists made repeated mentions of third-party ownership, a practice banned by the FA in 2008 and by Fifa more recently, but the ex-Derby County football advisor refused to take the bait.

He added: “Then third-party ownership came up in conversation repeatedly. If they showed the whole video, you’d see I must have said a hundred times ‘no, it is a waste of money’.

“If you want to be involved in English football, buy a lower division club, one with tradition. And with the right investors, you can buy good players, get promoted and then you have a club worth a lot of money.

“That was the advice I was giving them from start to finish.”