So, yesterday the Corruption Files took a sneak look at the governing bodies. Now we move on to someone they employ.
When Fabio Capello turned up in England he was known as a man with a bit of a murky financial history. Not quite on Icelandic levels, but still, a little bit racey, if you know what I mean.
So one of the first questions the Englanders asked the Italian was “is there anything nasty that we ought to know about? Any odd religious stance? Strange use of umbrellas? Inability to speak the lingo?”
And he said, as one would, no all is fine. (Except he said it in Foreign).
Unfortunately that might, maybe, perhaps, just might, not be quite right. Nothing on the umbrella front to be sure, but public prosecutors in Italy are starting to get their teeth into a tasty case of perjury. It seems last time he gave evidence in a trial (and Mr C does seem to get a bit close to legal issues, it must be said), it is suggested that some of his answers to questions about agents (pesky blighters) he was a little bit evasive.
Given that the Italian authorities know all about him and his history of tax evasion, and an ability to have more off-shore tax accounts than Tottenham Hotspur,they seem to reckon he is worth going after.
After all, he has just paid a £6m fine to the financial police in Italy (thoughtfully funded by the FA in fact).
The trouble with Mr Capello is where he lives. He is known for saying that he lives in Campione d’Italia, which sounds well, Italian, but is in fact actually sort of in Switzerland. But it has tax rates so low that by and large if you make money the authorities pay you, rather than the reverse.
Of course he doesn’t actually live there – bit of a slip of the tongue that, but hey we all forget where we live sometime. So he got fined for, well, lying.
Now he doesn’t just not live in funny places with funny names, he also has funny companies that sell Fabio Capello fragrances. And these companies can be given huge sums of money by… football clubs like Roma. Curious that. Nothing wrong of course, it is just curious.
And then the company that owns the scents and the like turns out to be part of the Capello Family Trust, which is based in Guernsey.
I’ve mentioned Guernsey before. I like Guernsey. I’ve spent a lot of time there. Part of my mum’s family come from there. That awfully nice Mr Bates seems to have to spend quite a bit of time in court there. They have a bit of a funny financial system that’s all. (Including the Sark Lark, Sark being part of Guernsey, but having a different financial system. That’s odd too).
At this point it gets a bit off, so I am going to hand over to Espresso Republica
This august journal says,
“Crates full of “Fabio Capello” perfume were kept in deposit for two long years. But then, since no one showed up to claim them, Customs officers proceeded to destroy them. Not one of them survived…. It’s also a shame for his former team, Roma, since it had purchased all those bottles of cologne, along with scarves and other objects designed by Don Fabio at a very expensive price: over 2-million Euro paid directly to Sport 3000 – a company set up in Luxembourg by the most elegant football coach in the world.
“The agreement also provided for more orders, but the Sensi family contested the contract as soon as Capello moved to the Juventus bench: it would have been difficult to place products bearing the brand name of someone who was considered nothing less than a “traitor” by Roma Football team fans. But the eau de toilette that has never been splashed upon anyone’s cheeks has proven to be a stroke of luck for Inland Revenue: by following its scent, Revenue inspectors successfully outlined the financial boundaries of the soccer team manager’s empire, digging into the folds of trusts and offshore companies. Subsequently coming upon tax evasion equal to Euro 16-million (including fines) and obliging the coach from Friuli to pay over Euro 5-million in due taxes and administrative sanctions. Crushing proof was collected against the companies owned by Capello and his family members.
“The outcome of criminal investigations are now being expected, which was shifted in December from Turin to Rome: having complied with the assessment, the defendants (amounting to about a dozen – other than Capello, the notice of indictment was served to his two children, his wife and a few business experts) might get off by paying a fine. ”
So there we are. A good role model for young English footballers I suppose. Maybe the chant in South Africa should be “Mon-ey Mon-ey” rather than “Eng-er-land.” Personally I don’t think the FA are very good at this appointment lark.
Everyone is welcome to comment on articles in Untold Arsenal, but they must be at least roughly on topic. If you want, for example, to comment on Arsenal’s performance against Man City and the role of the manager, this is best done under the article of a couple of days back, “Humble words of apology”. It is just a common courtesy to put comments in the right place, and comments that are totally off topic, will be deleted.
(c) Tony Attwood 2009
Tony – As always an interesting read but to be honest I’ve become so disillusioned with out national team I couldn’t careless who they appoint or what skeletons that person has in their closet. I would love to read any pieces on corruption surrounding the ownership of clubs particularly Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool or the Spud’s.
what the hell has this got to do with what is happening with arsenal? Umm i thought this was the place to talk about the ongoings related to arsenal not the italian mafioso..
gr8 to see eddy’s banned overturned
Tony, i’m not sure what your driving at. looking at our own history, we havnt been angels ourselves.
I suppose your theory of UEFA hating us is floored now as the eduardo/Diving ban has collapsed?
Ivor – “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” OR The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. The corruption in football is a blight on the sport that results in many of the injustices which harm the game; e.g. the bogus charges of diving against Eduardo come to mind while charming Englishmen like Rooney and Gerrard are given license to go down in the box at the slightest contact. Actually the Eduardo incident is just the tip of the iceberg. As Tony has done so well in recent weeks, the corruption in the sport is what threatens the future of many clubs who are being used as vehicles for money laundering or means to a quick buck. To the many Ivors of this world, it doesn’t matter so long as their club splashes the cash and win. Wenger has said it is financial doping which is unfair to clubs which seek to be competitive while living within their means.
This is just to let some “wenger out”-shouters know that the board better not go for Capello. 😉
I find it very good that every now and then Tony writes some stuff that at first sight doesnot relate directly to Arsenal but is really worth reading.
The thing is that when you get in to bed with a dog, you can have its fleas when you wake up, as they say in dutch.
So if the FA thinks its ok to have a manager who is crossing “the thin blue line” … well they could well follow his example.
And we all know, well in my country we know, to what such things can lead.
Tony is this all fact??
Walter, Wenger wont be with Arsenal for ever (only in our hearts). So we cant dig dirt on every Manager that is out there. so the board dont go near them.
Shotta gunna, you seem to have a mania on English players getting away with diving. particularly Gerrard and Rooney. Could you tell me when they have tricked the referee recently into giving a penalty?? What I thought The UEFA were trying to do was to erradicate the diving aspect of the game.
This is of course an Arsenal blog, but from its earliest days it has also covered other issues which don’t get much coverage on other sites, and by and large the readership has welcomed such deviations into the backwaters of football.
For example in the summer there was a review of all the clubs that were going bust – the number was quite significant. That was not Arsenal related – except that Arsenal is a club that is making money and keeping its head above water – and the piece highlighted the dangerous waters that clubs as far apart (in league terms) as Chester City and Liverpool have entered.
In this article the sub-text that people have suggested that we bring in a big-name manager – the point being that they are not always the sort of person you might want to do business with.
And, well I guess if the article doesn’t take your fancy, then you stop reading it. Bit like a newspaper I suppose.
I think tomorrow we’ll be back to Arsenal with the Wednesday game predictions and the like – but there’s one more corruption piece ready to roll which contains some startling new revelations about West Ham and Iceland. Again, not really Arsenal, but it reveals the problems of getting into bed with the wrong guy (as it were).
Sorry to those readers who don’t like what I am doing, but, if you look at those little counters on the right, you’ll see that we have consistently risen up the rankings, so I believe there is an audience for this type of meandering writing on things which are not covered elsewhere. And somehow somewhere have some sort of Arsenal link, even if tenuous.
Meanwhile – a first announcement of the fact that Highbury High returns for the League Cup game, and that is totally Arsenal. Subscription details will appear shortly. Also some interesting developments from Arsenal Independent Supporters Assn – more on that anon as well.
Tony
Faron – sorry I was busy writing the last note when your came in. The “facts” come from the Italian newspaper I have quoted. Also there has been mention in one or two other places before that story.
The fact that the original piece contains exact places and exact dates makes me believe that it is true, but I have no way of checking such data personally.
Faron@12:43: Your comment’s ridiculous. Youtube can answer your defence for Rooney etc.
In the many samples you can see, optical parallax is not an issue as with the Eduardo footage.
It’s as clear as daylight. It’s almost not relevant whether he dived or not. The issue was, why was he picked out.
Capello has some likeable traits, but he does love his designer glasses. Bless him.
What does this article have to do with Wenger’s successor? Nothing.
The Good Lord isn’t going anywhere yet.
Faron, you serious that you cant remember the last time rooney or gerrald dived?
Definately not more than 2 weeks ago!
Hi Tony
Nice investigating article. Nice to see that not only clubs but top managers are also deep into corruption. I know it not so interesting to some and the reason is not Capello. The reason I guess is England.
People dont compare Arsenal and England. But if a similar story with half the truth(we can surely make other half) about SAF would have much fun to read. Else if Capello was coach of some English club.
But seriously Tony can you tell us any story in PL where referees have been manipulated like in Italian league. Even some rumors would make a good read.
team spirit, are you talking about when almunia knocked him over??
If I may answer the question in the place of team spirit: I think he meant the falling to the ground before Almunia touched him.
And another fine Gerrard dive was in the CL last year against Atletico Madrid.
On the question from Abhisek just my thoughts: in Italy they discovered referees manipulation, in Germany also. I must say in my country I know the pressure refs get to blow in a certain way to get promotion (from refs from 1970 until now these days).
In some other countrys they had issues like that, so I really think that no country can be sure for the full 100 %.
But to be fair to the countrys mentionned: in Italy and Germany they punished the wrongdoers as it should be even with prison punishments.
Faron:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXw7Xk4hk-Q
Beautiful.
Rooney is a master. He did learn from the best.
Someone like Eboue diving is funny because he’s so bad at it.
What was your defence for Rooney again?
It is only biased supporters that are saying Rooney dived. gerrard may have dived last year but UEFA wernt trying to stop the cheating then. Anyway i’m not writing to defend these players i’m writing to defend Football. Someone has to do something to stop diving and if its one of our players that is being punished? so be it. However the European body has bottled it. There can be no more Conspiracy bollocks!
Yo Faron, did you watch the link, or are you blind? In which case I apologise for any offence.
No contact.
Eduardo played for the penalty, there was contact, just the same as Rooney against Almunia.
Penalty.
Why did UEFA choose to make assholes out of themselves in front of the whole world?
Ask Bilic, who’s no angel, what he made of the whole case.
Did you see or hear Bilic’s immediate reaction to the foul on Eduardo. Clearly, the whole situation stank.
So bringing your bleating back into context relative to the blog topic:
Corruption clearly exists wherever large amounts of money are sloshing around.
Referees in most leagues have been found guilty.
Is England different to the rest of the human race?
The Eduardo case smelled of gamesmanship by the FA and SFA and nothing more serious than that.
Or do you deny that there is any gamesmanship in sport?
The truly ridiculous aspect of this case was that England were clear group leaders.
“yo” Finsbury, (Your getting very Excited)
No i cant watch your youtube link until i get home.
I am not the one bleating on.
I am saying i dont like diving, And i dont like cheating. Eduardo Dived. End of. Eduardo should have accepted the ban. Uefa shouldve stuck to there guns.
Faron-
According to the laws of the game of football, and according to those who get paid to interpret them, it was a penalty. Just like Rooney’s last against us.
Fact.
Your opinion is your opinion.
If you have to resort to personal insults to argue your case, go ahead. My sarcasm was not an insulting by the way. ‘Yo’, in N.London is a friendly form of address.
“Eduardo dived” – prove it. Please.
If you are so against diving, why defend Rooney who is a proven ‘diver’ unlike Eduardo. You contradict yourself and you also you didn’t have the grace to comment on the link I provided for you. Don’t worry, I don’t bother trying to reason with the unreasonable.
Slagging off your own players when they haven’t done anything wrong sounds like a whinge if I ever heard one.
Or a tendency towards sado-masochism.
I havnt slagged Eduardo off. I have constructively Criticised. Something I’m obviously not allowed to do anymore.
When Almunia brought Rooney down, I do not believe Rooney dived. When Rooney went down on our 50th game unbeaten game, i believe he dived. Where is it that i was defending the England players anyway. I’m merely pointing out of the fixation some of the Arsenal supporters have with English players. Is it maybe they have no Allegiance to England? Fine. But i have.
I was just returning the favour with regards to your personal insults thing. Im not that far from the N.london area myself and i havnt heard the Yo in a while. And no i’m not blind (personal insult maybe?)
When was ‘Yo’ ever insulting?
Jocular, yes.
Yet again you repeat (i.e. bleating) your conspiratorial defence for abusing an AFC player, without any proof, but didn’t answer my points regarding gamesmanship. How can anyone who has watched or played sport confuse criticism of gamesmanship as conspiratorial?
Sigh.
Case dismissed.
As you said,
“End of.”
Calling someone a cheat without proof does constitute abuse.
you can bet that as well as paying his fines for him, the FA also employ a team of people to keep all of this out of the english press.
i hadnt heard this before today, but i cant say i’m surprised.
the not paying his taxes bit doesn’t worry me greatly, that in itself doesn’t interfere with his job.
the perjury stuff is interesting because a conviction would surely render him a not ‘a fit and proper person’. what would the FA do then?
Ok now ive seen the footage. i take it back about Rooney.
However you know deep down eduardo going down wasnt a penalty. You know if a celtic player had done that to us you would be up in arms. Also I wonder if we would’ve got a penalty agaisnt Manure (Fletcher on Arshavin)if eduardo hadnt of dived.
Tony, just chipping in to say that I enjoy your occasional non-Arsenal related pieces. As you say, there are very few who can be bothered to highlight such issues although the information is out there. Journalism has fallen so far from it’s original principles and as far as sports media are concerned they never had any. The sports media seem to favour the status quo above all else and are deeply suspicious of anyone who tries to go against received wisdom. They seem more concerned with losing their access to the bigwigs in the game and the wining and dining that goes with it rather than take a chance, stick their necks out and shine a light in some dark places.
Faron – you say
“It is only biased supporters that are saying Rooney dived. gerrard may have dived last year but UEFA wernt trying to stop the cheating then.”
At least get your facts straight, this law – article 10 (1c) was introduced by Uefa as a consequence of the furore that followed Rivaldo’s feigning antics when playing for Brazil in the 2002 World Cup.
Whilst it has been enforced only once in the intervening years (during a Scotland international fixture) the law has been applicable during all European fixtures since but not used even remotely evenly.
Article 10 (1c), , exi
Jonny you would have a good point if it wernt the fact that the rooney dives were nothing to do with UEFA.