LAWYERS for former Saints manager Harry Redknapp and two football club bosses appeared in court today over tax evasion charges.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Redknapp, 63, and former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, 71, are jointly accused of two counts of cheating the public revenue.

Peter Storrie, Portsmouth FC's chief executive, is separately charged over tax evasion in relation to a player's signing-on fee.

Legal representatives for the three men, who are all on bail, were told to be ready for a further directions hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London on May 28.

Judge Peter Testar told prosecutor John Black, QC: ''It would be a rather unfortunate own goal, wouldn't it, if you didn't comply.''

Andrew Trollope, QC, defending Storrie, added: ''A red card.''

The three defendants were excused from attending today's directions hearing.

Former Portsmouth manager Redknapp, of Panorama Road, Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, now chairman of Leicester City FC, are charged with evading tax and National Insurance contributions due between April 1 2002 and November 28, 2007.

Storrie, 58, of St Helen's Road, Hayling Island, Hampshire, is alleged to have cheated the public revenue between July 1 2003 and November 28 2007 over a signing-on fee to midfielder Amdy Faye when he moved from Auxerre to Portsmouth.

He is accused of arranging for the fee to Faye to be paid via the bank account of an agent, Willie McKay, in order to ''conceal its true nature and purpose''.

His actions allegedly caused ''a failure on the part of the club to operate PAYE and account for income tax and national insurance contributions in respect of that fee''.

Redknapp's first name was listed as Henry by the court and Mandaric gave his address as the Walkers Stadium in Leicester.