Fri 2 Jun 06
Highbury’s Professor… Moriarty?
Yesterday it was revealed in a BBC Newsnight investigation that Belgian police have uncovered a series of hidden loans by Arsenal to the Beveren Football Club as part of their probe of potential money laundering. FIFA is now looking into the matter, with consequences for the Gunners that may include expulsion from the Champions League.
Christian du Four, the Investigating Magistrate in the Flemish town of Dendermonde, told Newsnight: “A company with no name wanted to invest a million pounds in the club. We thought it rather bizarre.”
At the same time the team threw out most of its Belgian players and replaced them with unknowns from an academy in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Belgian police suspected the fog of secrecy was hiding mafia involvement.
Instead after an investigation they have told Newsnight that they found Arsenal’s secret hand behind the money.
Arsenal has a public deal with Beveren to play friendly matches and loan players but Arsenal repeatedly denied that they put money into the club.
Arsenal now admit that they did loan money, indirectly, to Beveren.
Today a sports lawyer claims Arsenal are not threatened by the scandal:
Leading sports lawyer Mel Goldberg claims Arsenal have little to fear from a Fifa probe into their dealings with Belgian club Beveren.
Fifa is investigating whether a £1m payment made by Arsenal to Beveren breaches conflict of interest rules.
Goldberg told Five Live Sport: “Uefa and Fifa have rules about clubs owning shares in foreign teams.
“I don’t think that’s happened here because Arsenal say, rightly, they have no control of a foreign club.”
One wonders if the EU has anything like the RICO Act at their disposal to deal with such legitimate businessmen.
Paul Canniff
