Day one in Court Six far from Rosie for Harry Redknapp in tax evasion trial Twenty-four hours earlier his vista was Sheikh Mansour's Manchester oasis, where Balotelli's penalty in added-time turned the screw on Tottenham's title hopes. This time Redknapp looked across a panelled chamber of wigs and silks. The air was heavy with procedural business. There was no fun to be had. For once Redknapp was powerless to pick a team as the jury was sworn in. He sat with Mandaric, the former Portsmouth chairman, in a glass box that was wrongly reported to have bullet-proof panes. "Shatter-proof," a court official clarified. Redknapp wore a dark blue checked suit and tortoise-shell spectacles: a novelty, for him, those of us who sat close behind agreed. The court would hear of bank accounts, fees for net transfer gains and an alleged "bung": Redknapp, 64, denies two charges of cheating the public revenue. He was watched from the gallery by his son Jamie, Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers" Association, and officials from Spurs. Surprisingly few fans tried to enter the court. Jurors who might have heard the broadcast were told to "forget" the talkSPORT radio show on Nov 17 in which matters relating to the trial were discussed. Forget a programme featuring Andy Gray and Richard Keys? The Crown expects a lot from jurors. Judge Anthony Leonard instructed them to "leave prejudice or favour behind" and warned that football "almost overwhelms other aspects in life" as he ordered the jurors to concentrate only on the charges. This was a vivid affirmation of football's tribal reach. Even the legal system's most eminent figures fear its distortions. At 2.30pm John Black QC opened the prosecution case. The first charge alleged that, between April 1 2002 and Nov 28 2007, Mandaric paid $145,000 (£93,100) into a bank account held by Redknapp in Monaco, for the avoidance of income tax and National Insurance. The second charge for the same offence related to a sum of $150,000 (£96,300) allegedly paid by Mandaric to the same account between May 1, 2004 and Nov 28, 2007. These were the bare details in a litany of allegations relating mainly to the sale of Crouch for £4.5 million, nine months after Portsmouth had bought him for £1.25m. As Redknapp's role changed from director of football to first-team manager, the prosecution told the court, his contractual percentage of net transfer gains dropped from 10 per cent to five per cent, and he "took steps to make sure he received his due" by taking a flight to Monaco and opening an account with HSBC which he called Rosie 47. The court listened intently to an explanation of how money from Mandaric entered and left Rosie 47, with $100,000 (£64,212) being transferred to the account of a company in Florida. "For a period of four and a half years the existence of the offshore account [in Monaco] was not disclosed and the payments were not declared," Black said. Between 2004 and 2006, Black continued, a civil tax investigation into Redknapp's affairs had been prompted by his alleged £300,000 share of the proceeds from Rio Ferdinand's sale from West Ham to Leeds. When the defence opens its case, Redknapp will be represented by John Kelsey-Fry QC, while Lord Ken Macdonald QC is counsel for Mandaric.