Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2008 » March

Colorado Arsenal off to a flying start

Colorado Arsenal – the club formed following the historic partnership agreement between Arsenal FC and Colorado Rapids – got off to a flying start by thumping LA Galaxy 4-0.

The game saw superstar David Beckham playing all over the pitch (no one was quite sure what his position was supposed to be) for the full game, before giving a press conference in which he first blamed the referee for poor decisions, then the international in mid-week for his poor form, and then the altitude. So no change there then.

Former Manchester United winger Terry Cooke scored the first for Arsenal in the 10th, leading to a round of “One nil to the Arsenal” from some fans behind the goal who had done their homework. Christian Gomez got the second with a 60th minute penalty. Omar Cummings made it 3-0 in the 67th minute and Colin Clark the last goal in the 80th.

At the end, LA’s Portugese defender Abel Xavier was sent off for a rough tackle on Ciaran O’Brien, who in turn was sent off soon afterward for his own hard tackle on Carlos Ruiz. So US football begins to learn what the game is really all about.

Galaxy are managed by Ruud Hullit – of whom it has been said.

Quite often.

Government tax rules means no Cup Final at Emirates

A bid by Arsenal to get a UEFA Cup Final at the Emirates has been thwarted by the government’s tax collection agency Revenue and Customs.

FIFA and UEFA now require football associations to confirm in writing that no player who plays in a cup final will have to pay tax on any earnings that result from that situation.

Players earn cup final money not only from their clubs and sponsor deals (which are taxed in the country where they are registered for tax) but also from local deals – for example by doing TV and newspaper interviews in the country where the final takes place.

This money is normally taxed in the country where the player lives – but for that to happen the UK has to have a “double taxation” deal with the country in question. Although this is true with all EU countries and virtually everyone else in western Europe, it is not true in the case of a couple of ex-USSR countries.

Of course it is utterly unlikely that any team from Moldova is going to make it to the final, but just in case that happens, Customs and Revenue has to say “no” to such a request – which means no Euro Cup Final in the UK until the rules change.

FIFA u-turn leaves Arsenal isolated

Having demanded a review of the Eduardo case, FIFA have backed down after pressure from the FA and the an increasingly frantic Birmingham City manager.

After making one statement saying that players who cripple other players should be out of the game as long as the person they have hurt, FIFA gave in to the FA late on 20 March and dropped the case.

The decision is a massive victory for the “kick Arsenal” campaign run by the media and supported by many clubs who feel it is their only way to combat Arsenal’s style. Arsenal are not the only team picked on in this way but seem to suffer particularly badly because of the sheer speed of their football.

The one positive to come out of the decision is that it might lead some other top clubs to look carefully at the way they are treated in the media and by the players at lesser clubs. This in turn could bring about the arrival of the much anticipated breakaway European League of top clubs – clubs that are willing to play football at the highest level.

For now however Eduardo is left crippled, and Birmingham City and their frantic manager and owner have got away with one of the worst tackles ever seen.

FIFA confirm that they want to take action over Eduardo assault

Following the campaign run by this blog FIFA have now said that they will meet the FA to discuss the pathetic 3 match ban that Birmingham City’s Martin Taylor got following his tackle on Eduardo which left him unable to play for at least 9 months.

Since then the Birmingham manager and the Birmingham owner have been very outspoken in claiming (wrongly) that FIFA has no jurisdiction over the matter. We have been urging FIFA to reject this view. In a statement to Reuters on Thursday FIFA has now confirmed that its disciplinary committee had reviewed the FA’s file on Taylor and sent a letter back requesting that it “once again review the incident in detail and reconsider the sanction”.

Sepp Blatter has told reporters this month that FIFA was aiming to crack down on tackles that caused serious injuries. “We are considering a number of options,” Blatter said. “But one we could consider is if a player is out injured for nine months, then the player who has caused him that injury also cannot play again until his victim has recovered.”

The FA has argued that it cannot impose a heavier sanction on Taylor without proof that he intended to harm Eduardo during the match in Birmingham on February 23rd.

We have argued that the attitude of Taylor was influenced by a three year media campaign which stressed that if lesser teams like Birmingham wanted to stop Arsenal winning they had to indulge in kicking Arsenal. We argue that Sunderland did exactly this to Diaby, and that we are seeing this approach in a number of matches.

Our argument is that Taylor’s approach was influenced by the press, but that he and Birmingham must take responsibility because Birmingham did not overtly tell Taylor and others to ignore the “kick Arsenal” campaign and just play football by the rules.

In a separate incident Birmingham City FC was raided by police yesterday who removed documents. Details below.

Police raid Birmingham City FC

City of London police obtained a search warrant and raided Birmingham City Football Club early today. Birmingham City have recently been in the news for their objection to a FIFA enquiry into the atrocious tackle on Arsenal’s Eduardo which not only threatened his career but could have left him requiring amputation.

FIFA have said they want an enquiry to investigate the tackle, but Birmingham have reacted against this and have been aided by the FA who have also opposed any enquiry Quite shamefully the player involved has been allowed to play again.

The raid is believed to relate to the Lord Stevens enquiry into illicit payments to players and their agents and football corruption. No one at the club has been arrested and there is no suggestion that the police believe that anyone at Birmingham City has done anything wrong.

FA side with Birmingham over Eduardo attack

Despite a clear statement by FIFA that it is looking into the violent assault on Eduardo in the Arsenal match against Birmingham, the FA has decided to go along with the demands of Birmingham City chairman David Gold, and their manager A McLeish, and not look at a further action over the events.

This attack by the FA on Arsenal is little more than a continuation of the feud between the “association” and Arsenal FC which has run over 100 years.

Soon after its foundation Arsenal turned professional – something that the FA saw as detrimental to its own power. While teams in the north had been professional for a few years Woolwich Arsenal’s move introduced professional football to London – and the FA rightly saw this as the move that would bring professional football throughout England, and so reduce its power.

The FA issued an edict to the effect that no FA recognised team should play Arsenal – and other teams meekly agreed. It was a move that nearly brought the end of Arsenal who were ultimately rescued by a series of moves which led to the club joining the League.

From that time the FA has continued its feud with Arsenal – not just the first club outside of the northern industrial areas to challenge the power of the FA suits and ties, but the club that eventually changed the power base of the whole of football.

The untold history of Arsenal FC including the battle with the FA, why when we moved from Woolwich did we move so close to Tottenham, and how we came to be promoted to Division 1 on a secret vote, is written up in more detail on http://www.emiratesstadium.info/football_articles.htm

Taylor returns to football after assault on Eduardo

“Kick Arsenal” media campaign claims Clichy as latest victim

The long-running campaign which has appeared in most newspapers and on most TV and radio shows, which says, “If you want to stop Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal”, claimed Gael Clichy as its latest victim.

In a wild attack, Middlesboro player “Mido” – one time of Tottenham – kicked Clichy in the head. The one positive to come out of this was that the madman was sent off. Clichy was stretchered off, blood pouring from his face.

The attack by a Birmingham “player” on Eduardo a couple of weeks ago and the subsequent denial of any problem by the Birmingham “manager” has led FIFA to start an investigation into that incident. Cesc Fabregas reported on 16 March how the incident is still affecting the team.

This blog has supported action by FIFA against everyone involved in the “kick Arsenal” campaign from the start, and we are now writing to FIFA to ask them to include the Mido incident in their research – along with the antics of the British media in promoting the “kick Arsenal” campaign.

You can join the campaign to wipe out this disgusting abuse of football by clubs such as Birmingham and Middlesboro – and countles others, by writing to FIFA. You can email them from http://www.fifa.com/contact/form.html or you can write to FIFA-Strasse 20, P.O. Box 8044 Zurich, Switzerland Phone from UK : 0041-43 222 7777,

Fax from UK: 0041-43 222 7878.

You can also add comments on the FIFA web site www.fifa.com

Over 15,000 readers read the unique articles on www.blog.EmiratesStadium.info in February 08, making us one of the most read Arsenal blogs in the world. Thank you for your interest.

We get Yankee Reds and Totteringham get no one

Looking at the draw for the quarter and semi-finals in Europe (Liverpool Reds in the quarters, and Chelsea maybe in the semis) it is interesting to reflect on not only our chances but also where other teams have got to.

Thinking back to the predictions made at the start of the season by several billion journalists the near universal consensus (Charlie Nicholas being the only odd-man-out) was that Totteringham would move into 4th position in the EPL, get to the final of the Little Euro Cup, and generally do good.

Arsenal meanwhile would sink without trace in the league, and be knocked out of Euro in the qualifying round. Debts would mount as we would be unable to pay the mortgage on the stadium. (All the extra income from property sales being overlooked for the sake of a headline).

And now: poor old Tottenham. Another manager, another £23 million spent on the transfer market in January, following the £30 million last summer. A little cup and at last, for the first time since Abraham played centre forward for God, they have beaten our reserve team. Next summer, another £30 million. And who knows, their first team might even scrape a draw with our all-conquering ladies.

But meanwhile, no grand Euro adventure for Tottenham, but they will avoid relegation and get mid-table finish. Not bad for £50 million plus a year.

As for us, who knows? At the start of the season a discussion on RedAction resulted in several hard-core fans saying “If it were offered, I’d take 4th place now.” We might win the league, we might not. We might win the Euro Cup, we might not. But what we can be sure of is the fact that we have done far better than anyone expected. The team is young, and it will stay together. We have new young players coming through all the time, and surely cannot have such a bad run of injuries again. Players who we thought looked dodgy are coming good (notice Senderos of late?).

The future is bright – which is more than can be said for Tottenham (debt and failure), Liverpool (debt and failure), Chelsea (not the best performance in the cups from a team with more money than some countries), Man U (with a manager who looked increasingly more unhinged by the day) and Fulham (although anyone who can call the Duke of Edinburgh a pimp gets my sympathy vote). West Ham are not so hot at the moment either.

Victory through harmony. Sounds better by the day.

FA to reduce importance of Cup to attack Arsenal

Senior figures at the FA have confirmed that they are looking at ways to reduce the importance of the FA Cup. Their method – a restriction on the number of non-English players – is quite possibly against EU laws, but such legal niceties are never top of the FA’s agenda when suggesting change. The approach is undoubtedly an attack on Arsenal and other teams that have sought to play the best football, rather than English football.

The approach will outlaw players not registered as able to play for England. This means those who have opted to play for Wales, Scotland, N Ireland or anywhere else, and those who, even with the odd qualification systems that football employs these days, could not play for England if asked, will all be excluded.

Thus each team will need to ask its players where they were born – something that is against employment law. (You can ask the person if they have the legal right to work in the UK, but nothing else). If the answer is not England the questioning will turn to parents and grandparents.

But here’s the real twist. Anyone who has lived and worked in the UK for five years can apply for UK citizenship – and that will give them the right to play for any part of the UK.

Arsenal’s response to this attack will undoubtedly be to enter a team of youth and reserve players. And who knows – given their success in the Little Cup over the years they will probably get to the Final. We can only hope the EU lawyers get to work, sue the FA, bankrupt them, and remove this pathetic and childish organisation (which once banned Arsenal from playing any games because they dared to pay their players) for good.

Arsenal: welcome to the first team

The brief on this blog is to cover stories that others don’t touch. When this story popped up I couldn’t believe it wasn’t running anywhere else – maybe no one noticed, or maybe it is not as important as I think it is.

But anyway, this weekend we are likely to see the Arsenal first team, for the first time since October.

Unless something awful happens between now and late Saturday afternoon Arsene Wenger will be able to choose his main players for the game. Toure should be back, Eboue is back, and best of all Van Persie is back. The only key player still missing is Rosicky who latest reports suggest will be out for another two weeks.

Eboue is, we all know, the player that most Arsenal fans would certainly not put in the top line up, and it is possible that if Rosicky was fit he might be there instead – but the manager has consistently picked Eboue, despite his falling over, his fouls and is baby shouts. He possibly sees something many of us don’t – and if that is the case it won’t be for the first time.

There is therefore a real hope that the run of 3 draws will end, and the new revised original first team will be playing. It has been a long long wait – mostly ignored by the press. A run of injuries which has caused us no end of problems – and still we are top of the league.

Now for the run in.

Birmingham angry at investigation into attack on Eduardo

Birmingham City manager A McLeish has reacted with great anger to the report that FIFA will investigate his players attack on Eduardo.

McLeish drew particular attention to himself with comments to the effect that his player had not meant to injure Eduardo – with the implication therefore that everything was ok. Now he is taking this unstable argument to further extremes.

FIFA, following representation from this news service to them, have agreed to look into the tackle, and perhaps take further action themselves, saying that a player who tackles in this way should be banned for life.

The Birmingham manager has now said that FIFA have no right to interfere and has argued that it is quite wrong for FIFA to take an interest.

In doing this he is effectively admitting the horror of the tackle, which we all saw – for if there is nothing to worry about, why not have an investigation? The reaction by the manager in trying to stop the investigation shows the depths to which the Birmingham club has sunk, and the way that they will use any cheating method possible to win a match.

We reported after the first Arsenal Birmingham City game this season how the crowd witnessed the entire Birmingham bench waving to one player to lie down (even though he was standing up without any injury) so they could run on the pitch and hold up the game.

Our view is that FIFA should not just watch the tapes of the Birmingham / Arsenal game but should also watch that incident in the Arsenal / Birmingham game, to get a full flavour of what is going on in the Birmingham club.

Fifa examine the media’s “kick Arsenal” campaign and prepare to take action against Taylor.

Fifa are examining Martin Taylor’s awful foul on Eduardo. Eduardo is out for 9 months or more, and could have lost his leg. The Birmingham defender got a simple three-match ban.

The world governing body have asked the FA to send them the disciplinary file. Taylor said the tackle was not malicious, and has brought out the usual round of character witnesses who say that he’s a nice guy really, and that he’s not doing something like that before.

Sepp Blatter has said FIFA have the right to ask for such files to ensure that appropriate sanctions have been issued.

This blog has written to FIFA to demand action, and Blatter has agreed the issue of violence needs to be looked at, taking up our suggestion that offenders should be suspended for the same length of time as the player they attack is out of the game.

“I told the international board that a player who is deliberately attacking another player and tries to demolish a player should be banned, and not only for three matches but temporarily banned or a life ban depending on the severity of the attack. Why the hell should footballers demolish each other?” said Blatter.

www.emiratesstadium.info reminded FIFA that this was not just the second terrible attack on an Arsenal player (Diaby suffered in the same way) but that the idea of attacking Arsenal players has been spread by journalists under the notion that “the only way to beat Arsenal is to kick Arsenal”

Our position is that this “kick Arsenal” campaign has been promoted by journalists on TV, radio and in the press, as the only way that less successful clubs can survive. It reached its height in the last season at Highbury when it was said that Arsenal’s very young team had no way of stopping clubs that kick players throughout the game.

Arsene Wenger has supported the notion that “kick Arsenal” is causing huge problems for the club, and mentioned Hleb as a particular victim.

This site fully supports FIFA’s move – we believe this is the most important development in football in the past 20 years.

Why Liverpool can never emulate Arsenal

You can see it on their faces and hear it in their voices – oh how desparate Liverpool supporters are to join the Top 3 and be considered among the elite.

But it won’t happen for a variety of reasons – reasons which can be best understood if we examine the difference between Arsenal and Liverpool.

Arsenal in 2008 is built around a successful manager with a long term plan. Liverpool, quite simply, has no plan and lurches from crisis to crisis.

Arsenal’s three pronged drive to success is built on having the best training facilities in the world, having the stadium that brings in the most money in the world, and spending more money on world-wide scouting than the rest of the EPL put together.

Liverpool has none of these – while youngsters across the world will have heard of the Liverpool name they will also heard of a club in turmoil, and of the antics of their supporters over the years. They will know that if they join the club as a teenager there is every chance that a top player from elsewhere will be bought in for £20 million and will go ahead of them.

At Arsenal, young players are queuing up to join – because of the long history of young players coming through and getting experience. Everyone knows that when Arsenal beat Liverpool 6-3 at Anfield, Arsenal had a team made up mostly of teenagers and reserves, while Liverpool had much of their first team on display.

As a result of the 3 pronged plan, and its huge success, Wenger has the total confidence of the board at Arsenal. What he wants, he can have. Oh how Liverpool supporters yearn for such a situation – although with their manager’s record in the transfer market you never quite know who he might buy next.

Meanwhile Liverpool’s ownership is a total mess. The Americans who took over promised to invest money in the club and not “do a Manchester U” by piling all the debt from the purchase back into the club. In fact this is exactly what they have done. (“We have purchased the club with no debt on the club,” said Gillet to the BBC on 6 Feb 2007.) Anyone who lies and lies and lies like this clearly isn’t suddenly going to start telling the truth – and that is a major problem for the club. You can’t believe anything anyone says.

As a result Liverpool fans now look to Dubai to rescue them. Dubai is one of the Emirates states, and perhaps the fans think that given that Emirates Airlines has caused no problem for Arsenal, they will be better off there. But this is not the case – the part of Dubai that wants to buy the club is the investment bit – and that means they want a return on their money. They want profit – not success. And that leaves Liverpool in an even greater mess than now. Worse, Liverpool were already hugely in debt when the Americans bought the club, and that debt, plus the new American purchase money, all has to be paid for. There is no money, and is not likely to be any.

Arsenal meanwhile are rolling in money. They were the only club to make a profit in the 2007 transfer window – while clubs like Liverpool had net expenditures of £40 milion or more, Arsenal actually received more than they paid out. Arsenal are only now slowly getting back some of the money they spent on property – and the hugely profitable apartments at the Highbury ground will bring in another massive amount. While the Liverpool manager is finding it hard to get money to buy players, the Arsenal board are constantly upping the level of funds Arsene Wenger has. £70 million in the bank available for transfers was the last statement from the board.

The problem for Liverpool is that Arsenal’s financial model, managerial style and approach to football based on world-wide scouting takes 10 years to build – and Liverpool don’t have 10 years. They are in fact doomed to scamper around the second division of the EPL, hoping each year that they can somehow clamber into 4th spot and so get the money to pay off the interest on their debts.

This year 4th and into the Champions League. Next year, the UEFA cup.

Wigan v Arsenal – a question of style and approach

In the San Siro the game was not just a wonderful display of Absolute Football, it was a game of skill and excitement from two teams who know a thing or two about the game.

Contrast that with our two games against Birmingham City, where the awful cynical “To beat Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal” approach propogated by journalists across the UK, reached its height.

In the first game against Birmingham I commented on the sight of 3 members of the Birmingham bench telling a player who was perfectly ok to lie down in order to waste time. It was the antithesis of football. In Milan we saw football at its most wonderful.

But now back to the league – and Wigan. If Wigan take the view that Birmingham and Villa got it right – defend and defend, wait for a slip, kick, put in niggling tackles, and worst of all go in for rotational timewasting – it will be a difficult game.

The big question is, does Van Persie play? He’s got to play somewhere sometime – and maybe he can share the show with Theo – one of them gets 60 minutes and one 30.

And where is Rosicky – he has been shown in the papers to be one week away from recovery each week for the past month but with Eboue suspended we are limited for choice. We could use Diaby again in mid-field – in both the Milan game and against Villa (a team whose fans have now reached the lowest level it is possible to reach – see recent posts) he looked very bright in patches, with extraordinary skill – but then he drifted out of it. Maybe he just needs more time on the pitch – although I suspect he would prefer to play in the centre rather than the wing.

Kolo is also supposedly ready to return – Senderos is hugely improved but still able to make the odd slip. The one thing about Senderos however is that no matter what happens he never sulks, never shies away, never drifts out of it. He is always shouting, calling, encouraging.

So – Van Persie back, at last for part of it. Maybe Rosicky, maybe Kolo. Quite a team is emerging.

Just think what we’ll be like next year when we get Vela as well.

Absolute Football from Arsenal

It was one of those moments – one of the greatest evenings of football from the team that all the journalists save one said would struggle, end up in mid-table, and drift out of Europe.

Arsene Wenger is now repeating the story: everything we do is way beyond the expectations of the media – for this is the year when Tottenham would scream into 4th place and Arsenal would implode.

Instead here we are. March 4. Arsenal top of the league. Arsenal beat AC Milan at the San Siro 0-2 with the most amazing display of attacking football seen in Europe this year.

Milan played the game as if Arsenal’s passion in the first leg would quickly ebb away – and when it didn’t they had nothing left. And, amazingly, this was all done without Eduardo, without Van Persie, without Toure, without Rosicky.

Those last three are due back any day now – Van Persie was on the bench today although not used, and that could well be the push that we need to complete an amazing double. In the year when we would slip down the league and just drift out of Europe, we could be on for a Europe+EPL double.

We beat the holders of the European Cup. This was Absolute Football.

Villa boss unhappy with his supporters at Arsenal

Arsenal fans upset at Villa antics

A singificant number of Aston Villa fans were removed from the Arsenal Villa game early on as anger grew around the statidum following the chanting of a disgusting song concerning their neighbour’s Birmigham City attack on Eduardo the week before. The song, which had clearly been widely rehearsed, was taken up by Villa supporters across the visitors’ end, provoking an immediate howl of protest across the rest of the ground. Despite this, the villa fans continued the revolting song before being bundled out by police. The chanting overshadowed much of the game. Villa were less dour than they have been in recent games (they played the first ever competitive match at the Emirates – an awful 1-1 draw which saw the Villa team put 11 men behind the ball for much of the game). However the time-wasting which has now become their trademark was in evidence from the start of the second half, and brought due derision from the crowd. The ref however took no action apart from an occasional ineffectual waving of an arm. As we’ve noted before, you can take one or two top players out of the Arsenal side but when the number rises, the side just does not work. Against Villa and their dreadful supporters we had no Toure, no Van Persie, no Eboue, no Rosicky, no Eduardo. We can do it without one or two of those, but not week after week with five or six players out. Aston Villa FC have failed to comment on their supporters’ actions. Any semi-decent club would stamp such revolting behaviour out. Arsenal have led the way with their action against anyone using religious commentaries against Tottenham Hotspur, but such action seems to be beyond the ability of these Midlands clubs. Journalists try to cover their Arsenal / Tottenham error Arsenal fans action against “Kick Arsenal” culture among EPL clubs “If that is football, it is better to stop”. Arsene Wenger Birmingham Arsenal: a total disgrace. It’s time for action Why Arsenal will work hard to support Game 39

Its the earliest ever St Totteringham Day for Arsenal fans

St Totteringham Day is celebrated by Arsenal fans worldwide as the day each season when Arsenal reach a number of points that cannot be overtaken by Tottenham Hotspur.

In 2003/4 this day was reached with an amazing 10 games to go. But this weekend that record was smashed as Tottenham still have 11 games to go and yet cannot overtake Arsenal’s 65 points (they currently have 32).

What makes this even more amazing is that this is the year in which it was almost universally predicted by pundits, failed managers and the hangers on that Arsenal would slip into mid-table and the all conquering Tottenham would end up 4th.

In fact Tottenham are currently 11th on 32 points, while Everton conclude the weekend’s matches in fourth on 53 points. Interestingly not one of the pundits has expressed any remorse or regret for these ludicrous and insane predictions. Rather the newspapers now write, “while some suggested that Arsenal would fail without Henry”.

Arsenal are, for the record, top of the league with 10 games to play.

First crowd trouble at Emirates in Arsenal / Villa game