Serious accusations have been made against Tottenham for allegedly breaking transfer regulations in 2008 when Jermain Defoe moved to Portsmouth.

The Times says that evidence demonstrates that in January 2008, Spurs agreed to transfer former England striker Defoe to Portsmouth for £7.5 million, but in the same month, they interacted with an unlicensed agent.

The Football Association is believed to be prepared to investigate the claims, but no action was done at the time.

Club officials have previously faced suspensions, transfer restrictions, and point deductions for breaking FA agent rules.

An FA spokesperson stated, “The case was heard by an independent arbitration panel 15 years ago.”

“The FA did not participate in the arbitration. No disciplinary action was done, and it’s unclear how much information was disclosed to the FA at the time. We will examine any fresh information that was not known at the time but indicates there were significant infractions of our policies.

In the 2009–10 season, Tottenham finished three points ahead of Manchester City to qualify for the Champions League, although Luton lost ten points for breaking agent laws in the same year.

Agent Sky Andrew initially brought up the claims regarding Defoe’s transfer to Fratton Park following the striker’s dismissal. Andrew claimed to be representing himself in the transaction.

According to The Times: “The tribunal concluded that Mitchell Thomas, the former player for West Ham United and Tottenham and an unregistered agent, was a key actor in the arrangement during the arbitration hearing over the Defoe transfer. In 2008, the Football Association (FA) published a list of agents who were involved in football without a licence, and Thomas was among them.

Levy hired licenced agent Stuart Peters to represent Tottenham, according to what was also heard, although it didn’t seem like he had a representation contract in place, which is required by FA regulations. For his part in the £7.5 million move, Levy consented to pay Peters roughly £1 million.

When contacted for comments, Portsmouth and Tottenham both declined.

To give context for the story, talkSPORT was joined by Matt Lawton, chief sports correspondent for The Times.”Defoe had a representation contract with Sky Andrew at the time. It resulted in an arbitration because Sky believed Defoe was in violation of his contract, as a football player cannot use his agent if he essentially conducts a negotiation himself. However, the opinion was that he had used a man named Stuart Peters, a licenced agent, and the assistance also from Mitchell Thomas, the former West Ham and Tottenham player, who was an unlicensed agent.”

At the time, there was some information of a private arbitration, but we are not given access to the hearings themselves, the events that transpired, the results, or anything else. The panel, which consisted of three QCs at the time, determined that Mitchell Thomas, an unregistered agent, had played a key role in the negotiation, as we now know. Sky ultimately prevailed in this matter.

“Basically, he assisted in arranging the deal and had dealt with Tottenham, the chairman Daniel Levy, Harry Redknapp, the manager of Portsmouth, and Defoe himself on numerous occasions on the day of the transfer.” The panel discovered possible violations of FA agent rules and FIFA agent rules after obtaining the phone records, which were obtained through a High Court order and contained all of this information.

“These regulations are extremely serious and must be followed in order to preserve the integrity of both the transfer market and football.”

Lawton said, “The panel also brought up the fact that, despite Tottenham hiring an agent, there was no proof shown during the hearing that a formal representation agreement was in existence. There are two possible breaches because you also need one of those.

Luton Town was docked ten points for paying agents without representation contracts when it was discovered that they had done so in the same year. In 2017, Massimo Cellino of Leeds was discovered to have dealt with an unregistered agent. As a result, he was given a one-year football suspension, fined £250,000, and the Leeds board as a whole was required to attend an education programme on dealing with football intermediaries. Thus, I want to underline once more how serious these infractions are

“No action was taken, as confirmed by the FA. Additionally, from the statement they provided us, it seems unclear to us that they have all the pertinent facts. At this point, they are stating that they will evaluate the case if the complete case details become public, as we are currently doing in The Times.

As all is going on, Andrew, Defoe’s former agent, is questioning the inaction of football’s regulatory organisations.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he stated: “Arbitrations must be taken seriously; they are meant to be a serious process where people gather evidence and determine the truth.”

“After that occurs, I believe the governing authorities should investigate to determine whether someone has engaged in misconduct or anything like, as there would be no need for an arbitration otherwise.

The entire purpose of it is to function as a secret procedure that ends in a court of law, separate from the actual court of law, and move on to the next stage after that.

According to Matt, things proceeded to the subsequent stage and the regulatory authorities. Although I’m not familiar with the procedure, I can’t claim that they haven’t done anything, but it appears like nothing has.