June 15th
Well, after complaining that there was little or nothing to talk about we got hit with the bombshell involving Dutch striker Robin van Persie. He was arrested in Rotterdam on Monday night on suspicion of rape. According to the Dutch prosecutor “Robin van Persie was arrested on Monday suspected of [a] rape incident that took place at the weekend. We cannot reveal any details of what happened as the Dutch legal system is different to that in England.On Tuesday, we will decide if we are going to hold him for longer, although strictly speaking we do have three days. The investigation is in full motion right now.”
He can be held for three days initially and with a judge’s permission he can be held for a further 14 days. Robin’s lawyer has naturally claimed his client is innocent, saying “The fact that he is locked up does not mean that they have a case against him. And I don’t say that lightly. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Van Persie is released quickly. I know the class of the young lady concerned – how, I can’t tell you – and I put large question marks around the truth content of her story.”
Arsenal have refused to comment thus far so we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of days. This isn’t something that you can speculate about and obviously I hope the case against him is flimsy and he didn’t do what he’s been accused of. As you might expect the tabloids are making the most of his past misdemeanours, which amount to little more than a couple of silly moments on the pitch, the likes of which most young footballers have on their record. He now joins goalkeeper Graham Stack as a player with a serious charge hanging over his head. Stack will appear in court in September also accused of rape. Beyond that there’s not much more I can say.
Also in the news yesterday was Davor Suker who was questioned in relation to the murder of his business partner and football agent Dino Prokavokolovickavic. It was interesting to note that Suker was only a former Arsenal striker, despite only one season with us, and not a former Real Madrid, Sevilla, Dinamo Zagreb, West Ham or 1860 Munich player. And in a happy day for football all round Steve Finnan was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving while George Best, fresh from the pasting he got from his girlfriend, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault of a 13 year old girl. It would be nice if there were some positive headlines this week. Like Roman Abramovich having his assets frozen by the Russian authorities, Alex Ferguson signing a new 10 year deal at United or Jermaine Pennant getting punched in the face.
Arsenal earned £15.7m from last season’s Champions League. That’s quite a lot of money. And that’s about all there is this morning. Keep an eye on the Newsnow feed for more about van Persie as the day goes on. I wonder if I complain there’s hardly any transfer speculation will we sign somebody?
