Judge tells jurors to ignore emotive subject of football in tax case against manager and former chairman Milan Mandaric

The jury trying Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric on charges of tax evasion has been instructed to ignore the "deeply emotive" subject of football as it retires to consider its verdict.

Judge Anthony Leonard told the jurors in his summing up of the case that they must instead focus on the evidence they had heard over the last three weeks.

The judge told the eight-man, four-woman jury at Southwark crown court: "Football is an emotive subject, stirring in an individual anything from deep passion to resentment. It has become so commercial that it may be thought by some to have lost its way."

But, he said: "This case is not about football but about some allegations of tax fraud."

The prosecution claims payments totalling £189,000 made by former Portsmouth chairman Mandaric into a Monaco account belonging to Redknapp were bonuses related to the latter's employment as the club's manager. It also contends that one of the payments was related to the £3m profit the club made on the sale of England striker Peter Crouch to Aston Villa.

Jurors were warned by the prosecution to "keep their eyes on the ball" when they considered their verdicts.

Redknapp's barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, said on Monday that some of the crown's evidence was "repugnant to all our basic instincts of fairness".

Mandaric's QC, Lord Macdonald, said the prosecution was flailing, with paper-thin explanations for the Monaco payments. "We say the evidence against him is hopelessly weak," he said.

Both Redknapp, 64, of Poole, Dorset, and Mandaric, 73, of Oadby, Leicestershire, deny two counts of cheating the public revenue when Redknapp was manager of Portsmouth.

The first charge alleges that between 1 April 2002 and 28 November 2007 Mandaric paid $145,000 (£93,100) into the account.

The second charge relates to a sum of $150,000 (£96,300) allegedly paid between 1 May 2004 and 28 November 2007.