A controversial £1million loyalty payment to France midfielder Dimitri Payet by West Ham was one trigger for last week’s raids by the taxman on football clubs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Payet signed for West Ham from Marseille in June 2015 for £10.7m and was a massive hit in his first season. But he left in January after effectively forcing his way out by going on strike.
The manner of his £25m return to Marseille left a bitter taste, given that Payet had been paid the £1m loyalty sum in September last year, in an attempt to persuade him to stay.