Four arrested in France over £5m football tax investigation

around 800 bank accounts and 110 companies examined.

The deals Marseille have done include several involving West Ham and Newcastle, although it is not known whether any of these are the subject of the current investigation.

Dimitri Payet arrived from the Ligue 1 side for £12m and then returned to Marseille in January for £25m. Midfielder Alou Diarra also made the move from Marseille to West Ham, arriving for £2m in 2012.

Newcastle, meanwhile, bought Florian Thauvin for a reported £15m in 2015 and loaned him back to Marseille for two seasons. He was due to be sold back this summer for £9.8m.

Newcastle also bought Remy Cabella from Marseille in 2014 for a reported £8m. He was also loaned back until the transfer was made permanent last August.

The French inquiry is being run by examining magistrate Guillaume Cotelle. Marseille have the 20th highest wage bill in European football, paying their staff £82m a year.

Meanwhile, West Ham today ruled out any questions to Slaven Bilic about the raid.

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the London Stadium and West Ham’s training ground at Rush Green.

Before this morning’s press conference to preview this weekend’s game away to Stoke, the club’s head of media relations, Max Fitzgerald, said no questions about the investigation should be directed to the West Ham manager, particularly since the squad were on a day off and were not at the training ground yesterday.

In a statement yesterday, West Ham said they were “co-operating fully with HMRC to assist their inquiries”.

HMRC officers also visited Chelsea although the club are not implicated in any wrongdoing.