The charitable foundation set up by Jamaican born/English footballer Raheem Sterling is under investigation after illegally failing to file accounts for more than two years.

The Raheem Sterling Foundation was launched five years ago, with the then England and Manchester City forward and his Jamaican mother, Nadine Clarke, among the four trustees. The foundation while acknowledging to be late in filing its returns, insists it has ‘nothing to hide’

The foundation has submitted only one set of accounts since then and has now been placed into the Charity Commission’s “double-defaulter-class inquiry”. The commission’s website states such an inquiry is “confined to dealing with the charity trustees’ misconduct and/or mismanagement and remedying the non-compliance in connection with their failure to submit the required annual documents to the commission within the statutory deadlines”.

The commission said it took action after sending repeated reminders for the foundation to file such documents, followed by a “final warning” to the charity’s trustees last month. As of today, accounts for the year ending June 30, 2023, were 814 days overdue.

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “Despite recent engagement by the commission, the charity has failed to submit its overdue accounting information so it has been placed into our double-defaulter-class inquiry. The current operational status of the charity will be examined as part of our engagement with the charity.”

Sterling, currently without a club and on police bail after being arrested in May on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs, and possession of a class-C substance – declined to comment. However, a source close to him told Telegraph Sport he and his mother had “no idea” about the Charity Commission investigation and had been focused on his well-being, entrusting others to manage the daily operation of his foundation.

Chris Bird, Manchester City’s former chief operations officer was appointed chief executive of a charity, which he says “reaches across Jamaica, the UK and beyond to champion greater social mobility, further education, empowerment, and to facilitate young people despite the challenges they may face in achieving their full potential.” Sterling was born in Jamaica and returned there in 2022 in his role with the foundation, playing football with the Prince of Wales and meeting the Princess during the couple’s tour of the Caribbean.

The U.K.’s Telegraph Sport was first alerted to the charity’s failure to file accounts almost four months ago, and sought comment at the time from Sterling and Bird. Bird has since responded, blaming a “health problem” he had suffered the previous year and saying the missing accounts would be posted “in the next 14 days”.

Since that time, the foundation’s website, raheemsterlingfoundation.org, has become non-operational. The charity had joined forces with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to combat mosquito-borne diseases in Jamaica following Hurricane Beryl more than two years ago.