Arsenal News » 2009 » September » 15

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