march 31st
08.56 – There has been so little going on this week, the piece of news I received last night was nothing short of a bolt from the blue. I got an email from a Brazilian Arsenal fan who is also a fan of Athletico Mineiro, the club we signed Gilberto from. There’s something going on and it’s not quite right.
Basically, when Arsenal agreed the fee with the club for Gilberto Silva, there was a deposit to be paid, then the transfer fee was to be paid in installments over a 12 month period. In order to make the repayments as small as possible, Arsenal paid a substantial part of the fee as the deposit…in cash.
David Dein handed over a big suitcase full of US Dollars to clinch the signing. Now, at the time of the deal, there was involvement from a Brazilian Judge who felt that Athletico should not have been allowed trade until they cleared their debts. Rather foolish, as the money they were to receive from Arsenal was going to be used for exactly that.
Anyway, the story continues with Athletico paying their players, in cash, with the money they got from Arsenal. Now, this is where details get sketchy – last week, an un-named Mineiro player was arrested – supposedly on suspicion of trying to pass counterfit bills in his bank. After some time in the police station, it turned out that this was money he had quite literally kept under his mattress since being paid last summer. Bank officials became suspicious at the quantity of currency he was trying to deposit. The bills in question came from the money Arsenal used to buy Gilberto Silva.
A little bit of an investigation has revealed that other players, officials and club workers were paid in the same counterfeit currency. It seems Arsenal have paid for Gilberto with dodgy dollars. The Athletico fan tells me ‘This has been kept very quiet but a well-known sports Journalist here called Luiz Eduardo will run with the story in his weekly column on Wednesday’
Repercussions for Arsenal if this turns out to be true could include a transfer embargo, a hefty fine from FIFA, and even points being deducted from us in this season’s Premiership. Hurrah.
We’ll wait till Wednesday to see what this journalist says, but my Brazilian chum was on the money before when he predicted to me we’d sign Gilberto in the summer (July 11th posting – 09.35, right at the bottom). Let’s hope he’s got this one wrong.
Other than that, all’s quiet.
Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of David Rocastle – to remember him, and to help the fight against cancer please take a few moments to read this.
