Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp has won his High Court claim that police who raided his home as part of a corruption inquiry were acting unlawfully.
The court ruled that the search warrant used by City of London Police was invalid and quashed it.
The High Court said procedural failures by City of London Police in applying for the warrant were "wholly unacceptable".
Lord Justice Latham said: "The obtaining of a search warrant is never to be treated as a formality. It authorises the invasion of a person's home."
The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Underhill, heard that the 6am search of Redknapp's house in Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset, last November was caught on camera by newspaper photographers, as was his departure from Chichester police station after being bailed later the same day.
The force were also ordered to pay 25 per cent of the Redknapp's' legal costs, unofficially estimated at around £10,000.
The couple's solicitor, Mark Spragg, said after the ruling: "This was an outrageous abuse of power by the police who ignored the rule book and executed an unlawful search warrant at 6am in the full glare of media coverage which they no doubt organised or at least did not discourage."
Only Mrs Redknapp was at home at the time of the raid as her husband was on his way back from Germany.
On his arrival, he voluntarily attended Chichester police station, where he was immediately arrested and detained for seven hours.
A total of nine people are on bail in connection with the continuing police inquiry, which has involved searches at a number of football club premises, including Portsmouth.
The police strongly denied tipping off the media in advance of the raid on the Redknapp's' home.
