Peter Storrie, the Portsmouth chief executive, has been formally charged by City of London Police with cheating the public revenue through tax evasion. He will appear before City of Westminster magistrates on November 16.

Storrie had learnt on October 22 that he was to be charged and pledged at the time to defend himself “in the strongest possible terms” against the allegation that he had evaded the payment of tax on a signing-on fee of £250,000 made to Amdy Faye, the Senegal midfield player. Faye moved from Auxerre to Portsmouth for £1.5 million in August 2003 and the money, it is alleged, was paid via Willie McKay, the player’s agent, to avoid paying tax.

Storrie has been on bail since being arrested in November 2007 along with Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric, the Portsmouth manager and chairman at the time respectively, as well as McKay on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. The case was part of a joint investigation into corruption in football by City of London Police and Revenue & Customs.

City of London Police made the charge after the Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office [RCPO] decided that there was a case to answer. The RCPO confirmed last week that investigations were continuing into Redknapp and Mandaric. However, McKay and Faye had been released from bail in June. Portsmouth repeated yesterday that they were “fully supportive” of Storrie.

The full charge alleges that “Peter Storrie, between July 1, 2003, and August 12, 2005, cheated the Public Revenue in that he, acting in the capacity of chief executive of Portsmouth Football Club and with intent to defraud and to the prejudice of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), arranged for a signing-on fee to Amdy Mustapha Faye to be paid via the bank account of an agent, William McKay, in order to conceal its true nature and purpose and thereby evade the payment of Schedule E tax and National Insurance Contributions on that fee by the club. Contrary to Common Law.”

The last line means that, if Storrie is found guilty, any sentence is at the judge’s discretion. Depending on various factors, such as intent to conceal a fraud or attempting to draw in other people, the sentence could be anywhere between a warning and a fine and/or a period of custody.

Last night a statement on the Portsmouth website, which called Storrie “a man of impeccable repute”, said: “We regard this action as seriously flawed. No evidence has been presented in this extensive 32-month inquiry, supporting any allegation of offending on the part of Mr Storrie.

“Urgent steps will be taken to highlight the lack of evidence presented by HMRC in an effort to conclude as quickly as possible this unwarranted prosecution.”