If Group C is the “Group of Death” then Group D ought to be a goalfest.

Portugal are clear favourites to finish top of the pile. Despite the fact that the “Golden Generation” failed to deliver in 2002 and Euro 2004, this side are surely not going to fail to reach the second round, taking in some valuable shooting practice in the matches against Angola and Iran. However, 2002 brought some lessons home to the Portuguese, finishing third behind the Koreans and the USA. This time, they will be prepared for the Iranians to hold out for a while and will not be so cock-sure when playing against them. Personally, I have always found the Portuguese to be overrated, the media blinded by the talent of Figo and exaggerating the skills of the forwards such as Nuno Gomez. To me, they are solid team, comfortably in the ten best of Europe and a reasonable expectation of being in the top sixteen in the World. Yet Euro 2004 aside, they have never delivered over a consistent period of time in much the same way that England fail consistently. This time round though, the squad seems thin on the ground in genuine World Class players. Vitor Baia is no longer on the International scene and his successors are decent enough but do not fill forwards with trepidation in the way that say, Buffon, can. Defensively, Ferreira is a good Right Back but Carvalho seems overrated based on his performances in the Premier League at least. In midfield, Ronaldo has youthful exuberance on his side but is that enough? Too often he is double-teamed by English defenders and is forced inside where his abilities are diminished. Simao Sabrosa is a highly rated Winger, by Rafa Benitez at least, giving width and the ability to score from distance but much will rest on Pauleta to score the goals they need. Having won through the Group stage, their likely opponents will be Argentina or Holland and I cannot see them having enough to get into the Quarter Finals.

Mexico are consistent qualifiers for the Finals and an average side. They are capable of performing well on their day but equally of being extremely brittle when physical battles kick in. This tournament looks to be no exception and like Portugal, I cannot see them going beyond the Second Round. I would expect them to make hay in the sunshine in the Group phase, capable of getting a point from the Portuguese and their forwards more than able to score a hatful against the whipping boys from Angola and Iran. Guillermo Franco gave Arsenal’s defence a tough time in El Madrigal but Jared Borgetti has not set the Premiership alight for Bolton this season. In defence, Rafael Marquez has been solid and has the ability to mark through positional and physical play, as Thierry Henry can vouch. In finding space for his son-in-law Rafael Garcia, Mexican coach Ricardo La Volpe may have taken the phrase “footballing family” one step too far as the player omitted was Cuauhtémoc Blanco, the country’s top scorer. Despite beating Brazil in the last Confederations Cup, they have an abysmal record against the top teams; European sides enjoy playing them only defeated in two of the last eight meetings. Nothing inspires me to believe they have the firepower to progress into the Quarter Finals yet the Confederations Cup – holders are widely fancied as a dark horse. I would not call the horse dark, merely invisible.

Iran come with no expectations beyond their own fans, probably buoyed by the recent 5 – 2 demolition of European giants, Bosnia. Indeed, it is more likely that the media will give column inches to the potential diplomatic row if President Ahmadinejad decides to try to attend their matches than the team itself. Despite their lack of history, coach Branko Ivankovic is still aiming for a second round place which will no doubt bring him a contract elsewhere with a first – class ticket out of Tehran.

Angola are the final combatants and undoubtedly Africa’s weakest representatives. They will be well motivated for their opener against Portugal but the matches between the two have common aspects; Angola get thrashed and their team falls apart, with red cards aplenty. This time, I doubt anything will change and it may be worth a punt at the bookies to see if Portugal can reach double figures in their match. Much can be read into their coach, Oliviera Goncalves comments, “These are the best players we have available in terms of quality and we’re going to prepare the best we can with them. We are going to try to create a cohesive, determined team that will fight to the end.” Given the exuberance of previous African teams in their first tournaments, the Portuguese and Mexicans can expect to have lumps kicked out them in an attempt to minimise the damage. Angola will no doubt try hard and deserve respect for qualifying but they are one of three teams I genuinely fear will get absolutely hammered in their three games. May their God be on their side.

Predicted Results

Predicted Table

Arsenal Players in the Group

None

Players that Arsenal should sign

None

Today’s Tunes come from OO Soul, an octet based in California launching the grooviest tunes this side of Christendom. Their myspace page is here and website is here.

Operation Get Down

Dublao

Cosmic Voodoo

Yesterday’s story on Newsnight has been followed up in today’s papers but not with as much gusto as it would if there was any substance. Most of the reports that I have seen do not give the allegations much creedence, an acceptance that no rules have been broken although there seems to be some consensus that this is maybe not in accordance with the spirit of the regulations. Meanwhile the FA have asked FIFA to clarify what exactly Arsenal are supposed to have done and which rules they want investigating as there appears to be no breach of FA rules. So Newsnight have egg on their face already.

Part of the backlash may have been to prevent David Dein’s continued presence on the Premier League Board, this has succeeded with his place taken by David Gill of the Disneyland Tomb Raiders. Dein however, was always likely to fall this time around mainly due to a number of chairmen being completely hacked off with his presence in the England Manager fiasco. Steve Gibson of Middlesbrough was a particularly vocal critic, if somewhat ill-informed in making his comments. Dein has been in this situation before, removed when the Premier League negotiations were revealed. He’s bounced back and I would not be surprised if the same happened again in a couple of years .

At the end of yesterdays blog, I mentioned that I had raised a question with the Producers as to why they had introduced the racial element into their report. Meirion Jones has given permission for the response to be reproduced here:

“The point we were making about the colour of the crowd and the colour of the team was that Beveren had been a traditional side full of players from the town which is almost entirely white. Overnight they found themselves replaced by a team from thousands of miles away in
Africa. It was a shock for the fans initially who really were a little like banana-skin-throwing monkey-chanting British “fans” from the 1970s. I was at the game and I did not see a single white player on the pitch or a single black spectator. I am glad to say that after initial
problems the Blue and Yellow fanatics as they call themselves have now taken to their team and many of them have bought tickets for the World Cup to support the Elephants of Ivory Coast in their games against Argentina and Holland.”

Back tomorrow with the next World Cup installment and some MP3′s to boot.

Arsenal Football Club tonight faces accusations that it has been secretly controlling the Belgian Club Beveren, having lent £1m to one of the individuals in the Consortium that owns the club and also loaned the club directly £200k. The claims are given prominence on the BBC Sport Website here, and on the Newsnight page here. In addition to this, the report alledges that Arsene Wenger has personally profited from transfer dealings, some of which involve Arsenal Football Club. Arsenal have issued an official statement, here, but nothing is on the official website as of 21:15 GMT.

The salient facts of the Report are:

• Arsenal loaned £1m interest – free to set up a company called Goal to purchase Beveren (photograph of Loan agreement here)
• Arsenal subsequently loaned Beveren £200k to stabilise the clubs finances.
• Arsene Wenger invested £30k in Jean-Marc Gillou’s Academy in the Ivory Coast, potentially earning £100k as a Return On Investment (photograph of official document here).
• AS Monaco funded the Academy whilst Wenger was manager.

Arsenal have indeed loaned a company called Goal £1m if the documents are correct. Unfortunately, the photography is (deliberately?) poor so that it is difficult to read whether the Loan Agreement backs up Newsnight’s assertions. Arsenal have admitted the £1m loan but stated that it was not directly to Beveren but to the Consortium with a view to stablising the Belgians finances. Let us be clear on one thing. Arsenal Football Club has a vested interest in Beveren being a stable club otherwise the technical agreement between the clubs goes out of the window. Another aspect that needs to be taken on board. It is not unusual for a businesses to loan money to one another, especially if bank lending is not forthcoming nor can the Directors provide further support.

An unnamed Beveren director states that the £1m gave Raoul de Waele, apparently a business associate of David Dein and a founding Director of Goal, 50% control whilst Gillou gained 30%. Now I do not dispute this. I am however suspicious of people who will only hide behind a mask and not stand by their own name to make allegations or support suppositions. Perhaps this director could come forward and identify himself. It is only then that the reason for his disgruntlement can be ascertained. Maybe he wants control of Beveren himself and sees this as an opportunity to further his cause. Maybe he has no other reason than wanting the best for the club but this will never be known whilst his identity is secret.

A Belgian magistrate has stated the “de Waele is Arsenal’s straw man” on the Beveren Board and that this is how the Londoners control the Belgians. There is no direct evidence of this provided to substantiate the claim. The Beveren Chairman is less reticent, stating to Police that Arsenal are the main shareholders in Goal, and that de Waele is Dein’s Trustee. If this is the case, then the investment should have been openly reported in Arsenal’s Financial Statements. To the best of my knowledge, it is not. Therefore, either this assertion is wrong or every Arsenal Director and the Auditors lay themselves open to prosecution by the DTi. Serious penalties would ensue ranging from fines to custodial sentences to prevention from being Company Directors. These impact on a range of businesses outside of football, raising serious questions about the individuals should this turn out to be the case. Even worse, their fitness to be Directors would be seriously questioned more through the stupidity of their actions than anything else. Could they be so daft as to do this? Well, anything is possibly no matter how unlikely it seems but given the high profile football has, I would be astounded if these claims turned out to be true.

The “boss” of ASEC, one of the major Ivorian clubs and an investor in the Academy whilst Monaco did so, Roger Ouegnin told us “They are not investors they are usurers.” Now I know not what nationality Ouegnin is but I assume he is an Ivorian. According to the Merriam – Webster Online Dictionary defines Usurer as “One that lends money at an exorbitant rate”. Perhaps a better word would be “Investor” Mr Ouegnin. Anyone who puts up Capital is an investor not a loan shark. Even more, Mr. Ouegnin stands open to accusations of gross hypocrisy. After all, did his football club AESC benefit financially from the arrangement? It is his own naivety that shames him if he did not include a sell-0n clause. Even worse, Mr Ouegnin is accusing himself and his organisation. If his investors were Loan Sharks then what does that make Mr Ouegnin? Meanwhile, Wenger does himself no favours by claiming that he donated his £30k rather than invested it. Perhaps he did and I am doing him a disservice but I am a cycnical sod who remembers George Graham’s “business” dealings rather too well. But before I condemn Wenger, there needs to be some clarification. Does he retain any interest in the Academy? If not, when did it cease? Was he involved when he took over at Arsenal and to what degree is he involved in the transfers. It is my understanding that he recommends targets but that the Board actions them, agreeing fees and contracts. In all honesty, would the club complain about the Ivorians he has signed? Toure – no complaints, Eboue – no complaints…there is a pattern here!

FIFA is quite rightly investigating the affair. Penalties for wrongdoing range from fines to expulsions from competitions. The Newsnight report incorrectly states that FIFA could expel Arsenal from the Champions League. They cannot. The organising body is UEFA who if asked by FIFA to pursue disciplinary action against the club could expel them from the competition. If there is any wrongdoing, my guess is that a fine would be levied but far from crowing about this, every other club would be forced to review their reciprocal arrangements with “nursery” clubs. Any punishment could have a detrimental effect on these types of arrangements, a worringly potential outcome for smaller clubs and African football in general.

Based on the report on the website, it is apparent that most, if not all, the accusations come from business partners falling out. Perhaps the most salient comment is that none of the investors in the Academy have received any monies as they are all subject to Legal actions in France and Belgium. The motivation for the accusations is made absolutely crystal clear in the final two paragraphs on the Newsnight site:

“back in Abidjan there is unhappiness that little of the money generated by football has made it back to the Ivory Coast. Roger Ouegnin at ASECS is still waiting for the £1m that he say Beveren owe them.

He and Guillou are counterclaiming against each other. Ouegnin also claims Arsenal have not paid him £500,000 which he says they owe for Kolo Toure even though he says it is just a “drop in the ocean” for them when Toure is worth £10 million plus. ”

Hell hath no fury like a business deal that goes tits up.

Rather worringly, Newsnight is open to accusations of slack journalism. There slant on the Report is one of Arsenal doing wrong whilst accepting fully the accusations of bitter individuals. There is little balance to the journalistic endeavours, perhaps even a sensationalist attitude prevailed. This is highlighted by the outright question of whether Arsenal took a cut from transfer deals involving the Ivorians yet they do not provide any evidence to substantiate this question, more leave it hanging in the air, the rationale appears to be that if they throw enough mud maybe some of it will stick.

One final point. The report on the website states, “At the same time the team threw out most of its Belgian players and replaced them with unknowns from an academy in Ivory Coast, West Africa.”, further augmented by, “Newsnight watched an all-white crowd cheer on an all-black Beveren”. I have requested an explanation of the latter comment from Newsnight’s editors. The implication is that their are racial motivations involved in this deal. I wait with baited breath to see if they reply.