A bad day to be David Dein
41 comments June 3rd, 2006
Firstly, you awake to news of a BBC investigation into your club’s agreement with Belgian club Beveren, with allegations you have bought an illegal stake in the club for £1m. It’s pretty boring stuff, but if you’re keen you can read the full case here. However, if I were you, I’d read this excellent piece from Arsenal times, which basically concludes there isn’t too much to worry about. Lawyer Mel Goldberg agrees, stating:
“UEFA and Fifa have rules about clubs owning shares in foreign teams. I don’t think that’s happened here because Arsenal say, rightly, they have no control of a foreign club.“
It’s all a bit confuddling, but at the end of the day it’s not good press. I’m sure we’ll get away with it, but after the controvery with the handling of Quincy’s transfer from Ajax we don’t need any more scandals of this nature.
The timing of the leaked investigation was fascinating, what with yesterday being election day on the Football Association board. Dein ended up losing out to David Gill, the Manchester United Chief Executive. This can’t be too bad a thing for us, as any accusations of FA bias can now hopefully be passed on to United.
Still, after that 24 hours, one wouldn’t be surprised if Dein’s face was even redder than usual.
