You Are Part of a Criminal Enterprise!

I love the smell of freshly-laundered $$$.

Have you ever bought a kit directly from your favorite club's website? Have you ever purchased tickets to a match? Have you ever donated money to the supporters' club? I have bad news for you - welcome to a RICO trial!



A report released last week by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has some strong words for football:

"[F]football is at risk from criminals buying clubs, transferring players, and betting on the sport [and] tax evasion...human trafficking, corruption, [and] drug trafficking..."

Well, that certainly seems like it could be a problem. Apparently one of the more common methods currently is for a player to sell his image rights to a 3rd party, and then have the club pay the latter for those image rights as an indirect salary to the player. Since it is not a direct compensation to the player, he does not pay taxes on that sum and the 3rd party funnels the money back to him discreetly. Even more damaging is the increasing dollar (Euro; pounds; etc) amount of international transfers and the often obscure machinations they entail.

However, the most insidious version of criminal activity comes when shady investors put money into a club, either as shareholders or as outright owners:

"The report cites several examples of clubs in financial difficulties whose deficits were funded by suspected criminals. Investors may get their 'laundered' funds back by selling the club's equipment and services at inflated prices, or via sales of media rights, tickets, players and merchandise."

Investigators claim to have already prevented the takeover of one Italian club by a criminal enterprise, although Berlusconi seems to have avoided their attention. The appeal of football clubs to large-scale criminal organizations is high when money gained from drug trafficking or gun-running needs to be laundered. We've already discussed the case of Mexican club Mapaches, who acted as a front for the Gulf Cartel.

In the world of competitive sport, moving money into and out of businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars is surprisingly easy, and incredibly lucrative for criminals. The key is simply to have individuals or other businesses (essentially "shell" corporations) act as a go-between. When a business is used, there are typically so many layers of obfuscation that no one is aware of who is really behind the purchase of a football club (when asked for comment, Roman Abramovich simply replied "In Russia, money launders you!"). When individuals are used, they are typically making transactions that are smaller so as not to trigger automatic FINCEN (or similar agency) monitoring in a process known as "smurfing."

So really, whenever you spend money on your favorite club you may be doing an international criminal a favor. Why do you hate America?

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Nate Jaqua Will Have Significant Legal Bills In His Future

After his Seattle Sounders won its US Open Cup match against its northwest rival Portland Timbers last night Nate Jaqua was probably riding high. But, allegations of sexual assualt that have surfaced today in his hometown of Eugene, Oregon may be a real downer. A former University of Oregon female soccer player is accusing Jaqua of sexual assault in a civil suit.

The victim claims she and other teammates were at a popular Eugene hangout in 2007 with Jaqua, who was discussing with them the differences between MLS and college soccer. Jaqua, she alleges, insisted on walking her home and then he sexually assaulted her " penetrat[ing] her vagina and anus with his fingers and penis, and then ejaculated and urinated on her." The accuser is seeking $10 million in damages.

Ugh...this does not sound good.

Jaqua is the second Sounder this season to face sexual assault allegations, although these are civil and not criminal. Colombian Fredy Montero was accused of sexual assault earlier this season but those allegations never led to charges.

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Guess Who Wants to Get Robbed?

Well, besides players that sign to go to Anfield.

It's Americans. We have the highest demand for World Cup 2010 tickets. USA! USA! What recession? There's a country that doesn't know we're shitty tourists. Never mind that 55% of people who were able to refinance their mortgages are already over a month delinquent*. We've got a country to visit to watch a sport apparently we don't care about. Let's get going.

According to the Guardian:

Interest in the packages, including tickets, concessions and parking, for the tournament in South Africa has soared in the past month in the United States and Canada, said Keith Bruce, president of SportsMark Management Group, the exclusive sales agent within North America for the event. "We received double or even triple the number of inquiries into our website versus the prior 30-day period."

The Guardian notes that its corporate sales are handled through something called Match Hospitality. They license internationally to companies like SportsMark, which is a subsidiary of Omnicon Group. Omnicon is a massive advertising company that is in turn owned by GloboChem

Anyway, this is all long hand for saying that Bruce is talking about corporate packages for the World Cup.

So American companies are laying off people left and right and afraid to be seen entertaining in the swank seats at Yankee Stadium but if you're the right client, apparently there are African perks awaiting you in 2010.

Woo hoo. USA! USA!

[*Note: Irresponsible journalism alert... Can't source this, but pretty sure it was the number I heard on CNBC yesterday]

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Not Good. Not Good At All.

Normally when we see death in soccer, it comes in one of three forms: fan suicide, a player killed for doing poorly, or players dying on the pitch during a game. No death is palatable or pleasurable to hear about, and this story commingled with soccer is way off the radar.

The Nigerian Premier League title was won over the weekend by Bayelsa United, who clinched the trophy with a 2-2 draw, and captain Abiel Tabor was an integral part of their winning season.

On his way to visit family hours after the victory, Tabor's car was intercepted by armed robbers, and he was shot and killed.

"We were told he was (killed) by the armed robbers close to Warri," said the club assistant, Ebi Ayah, and it's unsure whether it had anything to do with his club allegiance (the 2-2 draw was with the local team, the Warri Wolves), but any way you slice it, this is fucking sad, depressing awful news.

The Niger Delta is overrun with violent crime as gangs seek to get their fair share of the country's resources, and this is the end result, roaming criminal gangs robbing people and hijacking cars along major highways.

And so Bayelsa is without their 24-year-old captain, his family is without their husband/brother/father, and for nothing. Heartbreaking stuff.

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Special Punch

Does this man look violent to you? Oh, wait.

I can understand if Jose Mourinho was a little miffed yesterday evening. After all, he had just watched his Internazionale Milan side lose 2-0 to Manchester United and drop out of the Champions League competition. Although he was gracious in defeat, both in his meeting with Sir Alex on the touchline and at his press conference, perhaps The Special One had something seething inside him that just needed to come out?

When that anger came out, was it directed at Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Adriano, both of whom hit the post? Or was it at Julio Cesar for "letting" in 2 goals? Or was it at Patrick Vieira, the once-feared patroller of Highbury, for being such a disappointment during the match that he was replaced with Sulley Muntari?

No, it appears that Mourinho vented his anger on one of the numerous Manc supporters who had made his day at Old Trafford completely miserable. Apparently this lovable bloke decided to wait outside near the Inter bus and serenade Jose with chants of "You're going home." Unsurprisingly, Jose was not pleased. Surprisingly, he did something about it, allegedly punching the man in the face. The Red Devils supporter went to the nearest police station and filed a complaint, and now the Greater Manchester Police have asked Man United for CCTV footage of the area in an attempt to clarify what happened.

Manchester United have confirmed that they aware of the allegation and are working with the police to provide them with the footage. Naturally, Inter have denied any wrongdoing on the part of Mourinho. There is no word from Jose's momma on whether he had a tough time keeping his hands to himself as a child.

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Quick Throw: Ashley Cole in the clink

Spartak left-back Ashley Cole was arrested last night for being drunk and disorderly after a charity event in South Kensington. No comment yet from the club, and young Cashley was too busy napping off the champagne headache to give a quote. Selfish bastard.

[Guardian Sport]

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UF Quick Throw: Gerrard arrested for assault

Dammit.

Liverpool captain/talisman/Chief of Helping Old Ladies Across the Road Steven Gerrard is being investigated regarding an assault late last night at a nightclub. He's never done anything like this before, but I suppose it's never too late to start. 6 other men were arrested shortly after, and one man remains in hospital with facial injuries "not thought to be life-threatening."

I will now begin my "Free Gerrard and Prove His Innocence" dance until this matter is resolved.

[BBC News]

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So That's How The Canaries won...

Ipswich Town laptops stolen during derby weekend with Norwich City. Am I the only one to take the leap of logic and suggest it had anything to do with the Canaries?

[Daily Mail]

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Small Town Crimes Are Hilarious

Sometimes the Google Alerts send us crap and sometimes they send us great things like the one in this post about a small town police log. Today's find comes from Lodi, California just east of the Bay Area. Before I get into this story, though, I want to tell the story of the best police log entry I can remember from my own small town newspaper.

I went to law school in Oregon and the place I lived had a weekly paper with the crime blotter. This town was very white (like most all of Oregon) and fairly affluent. Anyway, some women called the police reporting she had spotted a member of Al Qaeda entering the local Safeway. She knew it was Al Qaeda because he looked middle Eastern and had a towel on his head. No joke, this is what she reported. The fellow was not contacted according to the police log. This one was slightly better than the lady who kept reporting that a mysterious pair of black pants kept showing up in her house.

Anyway, on to the soccer related police log entry. On this past Sunday in Lodi there was some property destruction going on and soccer was the culprit.

Wayward soccer ball, times two
1:51 p.m.: Adults were playing soccer at Needham School, 420 S. Pleasant Ave., and couldn't keep the ball on the correct side of the fence. First it hit a woman's pick-up truck, and then it destroyed her flower bed.

Well, that's a shame.

More importantly, though, it is clear Lodi's police force is handling some very important matters and mediating disputes:

Refusing to nap

12:46 p.m.: A 9-year-old boy didn't want to take a nap and was screaming at the top of his lungs in a backyard in the 500 block of South School Street. Police mediated the dispute between child and mother.

Glad it all worked out.

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Carlos Tevez has bigger problems than fitting into the 4-3-3

Carlos Tevez has had a slow, gentle start to the season, much like the rest of his teammates. 8th place after 7 weeks is a little lower than they'd like to be, as is Tevez' strikerate of 1 goal in his first 9 games for the Red Devils in 2008/09.

And yet, as with most things Mancunian, they have a tendency to even out over time, and you just know they'll be fine. Despite the endless fun we poke at their underwhelming campaign to date, but we know they'll get back on track, charming their way into the title hunt. Heck, they'll probably win the whole thing.

For Carlos Tevez' brother, it's another story entirely. Being arrested for attempted robbery will do that to you.



From the Daily Mail:

"Juan Alberto Martinez, 29 - the United and Argentina star's older half-brother - reportedly was part of a gang of four masked men who attacked a security van at a service station.
They allegedly threatened the guards and ran off with their weapons and cash boxes."

Martinez, the older half-brother to Carlos T, ended up with a ton of empty boxes and was eventually arrested in Buenos Aires, while the rest of the gang was rounded up in Cordoba. Interestingly enough, the gang had another lad connected to Tevez: his half-sister's boyfriend.

There's not much to make fun of here, as invariably these stories come up every once in a while and remind us that yes, there's more to life than soccer. Of course, Carlos isn't implicated or involved in any way, but it's hardly the sort of family matter you wish to be dealing with, is it?

After all, they're hosting West Bromwich Albion this coming weekend!

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Old news: Hicks family and Liverpool are not BFF

Nothing will ever be simple for the Hicks family in Liverpool. They were welcomed with the same cautious enthusiasm that met soldiers in Baghdad square (well, we're led to believe so anyway), and now, they've been exposed as rather insidious and dishonest since then.

Liberators on one hand, now they're the dismal status quo holding us back.

Well, it seems like even a monumental win over Manchester United this weekend STILL couldn't buy them some second-hand goodwill.



Tom Hicks' son, Alex Hicks, thought that a night on the town would be a bit of fun, although a drunk American outside the Cavern Club is going to draw some attention, especially when traveling with a small cadre of minders and bodyguards (Rule #1: no matter how restless and crude the natives appear to be, treat interaction with them as something more relaxed than an anthropological journey).

Back at the hotel, a fight broke out, and his bodyguard punched out a security guard and spent the night in the clink.

From the report:

"Witnesses said alcohol and cutlery were hurled out of an upstairs window to the street below. A drunken fracas is believed to have revolved around Alex Hicks and his group of friends."

He was charged with assault and sent on his way, but it is yet more bad press for the already embattled Americans in charge at Anfield. At least Gillett has been seen at some games recently! He even tried to sing along with You'll Never Walk Alone!

Still, it's worth noting that the incident took place at the Hard Day's Night Hotel, the recent downtown development of a Beatles-themed hotel. There's an All You Need Is Love joke in there somewhere...

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Welcome to Brookside, Robbie

I'm saddened by what's going on in my hometown, but it appears we'll never shed our stereotype of being droll, perm-wearing thieves. The news this morning is that Everton fans have added another scalp to their lucrative LFC burglary scheme, adding new Red Robbie Keane to their list.

While he was on international duty with the Republic of Ireland, thieves managed to crack into his downtown penthouse apartment and escape with an expensive watch, some jewelery, and a smug sense of satisfaction.

Blue bastards.



But seriously, was the doorman asleep? Did the robbers give him a comfortable chair to relax in while finishing his shift?

Whatever happened, it's now the 7th (7th?) LFC player to be robbed while playing away from home. No wonder we play like shit away from Anfield: too much worrying about whether their BMWs are going to be there when they get back!

In the spirit of the stereotype, I might as well post this video. Then it's back to Chelsea jokes.

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Naughty nurses (well, nurses' unions)

(I WISH this story was going along those lines...)

Well, naughty in the sense of embezzling money to fund after-school soccer activities. Then this story warrants such a headline!

From the shore of Australia, we find this wonderful gem:

"NURSES have demanded their union chief resign after the union sponsored his daughter's soccer team with funds from their membership fees.

The NSW Nurses' Association donated $5000 to the Hills District Women's Football Club, which has the Beaumont Hills Lady Hawks in its ranks. One of the team's star strikers is the daughter of Brett Holmes, the association's general secretary.

The sponsorship deal was funded from the Nurse Power Fund - a financial reserve raised through member contributions."

Oops. Now I'm all for parents supporting the extra-curricular activities of their children, but surely this goes a bit too far?

Understandably, the nurses are pissed:

"RPA emergency nurse Cate Cunningham said nurses felt "disillusionment and disgust".

"When we heard at Thursday's branch meeting our fighting fund money was being used to sponsor a women's football team we were speechless. Then on Friday, news filtered through that it was Brett Holmes's daughter's team," she said. "I can't tell you how angry and upset we all are. This has never been reported to members."

Mrs Cunningham said the branch meeting had been held to address the union's willingness to fritter away valuable workplace entitlements in exchange for a "pissant pay increase" of 7.8 per cent over two years.

"We were all sitting there, wondering how on earth our union could have left us in such a mess … then it was casually mentioned a women's football team had been kitted out with cash deducted from our own wages," she said.

The sponsorship was approved at the association's council meeting on November 29. The successful motion read: "The NSWNA contributes $5000 in sponsorship to the Hills District (Female) Football Club for the 2008 year from the Nurse Power Fund."

The message here is simple: don't join unions. That 5-minute addition to your lunchbreak is definitely nice, but it gets ugly when you suddenly find your dues paying for knee-high polyester socks and half-time oranges.

Perhaps the best quote was saved for last, from the guilty party himself, chairman Brett Holmes. When quoted that he was going to defend the $5000 outlay, he had this beauty:

"We have a turnover of $24 million. We can't go to our members about every dollar spent."

Indeed Mr. Holmes, indeed. Good luck with finding a new job... hopefully there's some money to be made in the selling of 2nd-hand football equipment until an HR executive comes-a-knocking.

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South Africa has problems beyond what you know already

A top South African female footballer was attacked, stabbed, gang-raped and killed two weeks ago in her hometown of Kwatema. While there is a good possibility that this was a random attack, many locals and activists are convinced that she was targeted. Why? Because she was a known lesbian.

Details (I cannot promise they will not be stomach-churning) after the jump.

Eudy Simelane was 31 years old, and a couple of years removed from her time on the national squad of South Africa. She was returning from a night out with friends when set upon by at least 5 teenagers. After the rape and murder, her body was left out in the open air. Five men have been arrested and charged with the crime.

On the surface, this may appear to be a random attack. It is difficult to hear about South Africa in the news without being told of its crushing poverty, the tensions that brings and high crime rate. So why are so many people convinced this was a focused attack on a lesbian? Well, it seems that one of the arrested was Miss Simelane's neighbor. Couple this with the information that lesbians in the area where Miss Simelane lived may have to endure "corrective rape", and the probability that her rape, at least, was not random goes up immeasurably.

"Corrective rape", as you may have guessed, is when a man rapes a lesbian believing that the experience will cause her to "be cured". In a country that has an HIV prevalence rate of 21.5%, such beliefs are deadly. Scarily, the rate of this disgusting and deadly crime is on the increase.

A quick search on the deceased turns up a host of sites that are following the news of her death closely. Many of these sites point to a movement, Campaign 07/07/07, dedicated to bringing notice to the world of the natures of the crimes against lesbians in South Africa. If this is something you can support, I urge you to look here. It's not the prettiest website, but it will give you the information you need.

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Catalan thieves do not wait for you to leave home.

Unlike their Liverpudlian counterparts, Catalan thieves do not wait for their local footballers to leave town to rob houses. Hell, you can even be in another room, and these guys will still take your stuff. Just ask Frank Rijkaard.


Rijkaard's home was burgled on Sunday night, with him and his family in it. Either these were the cattiest of catburglers, or the entire family was stoned out of its collective gourd. Perhaps his house is huge and the rooms were a football pitch apart, I don't know, but shouldn't it at least have a security system? Maybe a pack of dogs on the grounds?

What I do know is this--there is no way I scale a 6-meter wall without breaking something on the way down the other side. Of course, I get winded heading to the mailbox, so maybe I am not the best example. The thieves entered the master bedroom and got jewelry, watches, and a large amount of cash. Who knew that Rijkaard kept his savings under the mattress? Seems like an inside job to me.

What makes the article for me, though, is the appearance of an unnamed source. This source says, "that while the robbers were probably professionals, they would probably not have known how high profile the owner of the house was". Is it just me, or is that probably one too many "probably"s in that sentence? It seems that this unnamed source should probably be brought in for questioning. If and when they do, I am quite sure that the perp will be blonde, male, permed and bemulleted. His motive? Looking to make even past aggressions in Rijkaard's playing career.

It's the only possible answer to such an insolvable crime.

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Fabio Capello: hides his finances as well as his plan for fixing England

A while ago, we blogged on a rather innocuous story to do with Fabio Capello and his involvement with an Italian corruption probe.

It was, at the time, nothing much to write about, a throwaway post, a space-filler. His son, Pierfilippo, even gave the BBC a wonderful sound bite back in the day about the boring, humdrum nature of such investigations. Yawn. Lame. Move on.

Well, the passage of time has spiced things up a bit, because it turns out little Fabio wasn't entirely honest with the authorities when they initially called him as a witness in the Juventus case.

I'm thinking they must have asked him what his ideas were for fixing the lifeless shitdump that is the English national team, and he said he had no idea.

It's so bad that an Italian prosecutor is thinking of bringing a criminal case against Capello.

Good thing we're not in Euro '08 then, eh?

From the BBC:

"The court case, which is ongoing, relates to the GEA World sports agency. The former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, who was at the centre of Italy's match-fixing scandal in 2006, and Davide Lippi, son of the former Italy coach Marcello, are among the defendants.

The England coach worked under Mr Moggi at Juventus until 2006, but it was his time in charge of Roma between 1999 and 2004 which most interested the court.

In court, he denied having been put under pressure over the management of players during his time at Juventus and Roma."

It gets better:

"Mr Capello, 61, was also asked about an interview he gave to the Corriere dello Sport newspaper about GEA and their alleged monopoly of players.

In that interview the coach said he knew many players were "gravitating towards that company". But when asked further in court about the interview, and details he had given in the initial inquiry, the England coach was less forthcoming.

Mr Capello is not thought to have lied, but the prosecutor believes he was evasive and at times obstructive in the evidence he gave."

[yeah, I quoted pretty much the whole article, what of it?]

I'm sure that like most things in life, this story will dribble to a disappointing, rather mundane conclusion. However, it's not exactly a good sign when you get caught hiding something, because that obviously implies that there was something worth hiding in the first place.

It's also not good because the England team is neck-deep in enough fucking shambles as it is, and yet now their talisman, the man charged with bringing the national team back into relevance and power, is probably a fucking cheat and a liar.

In retrospect, was Steve "The Ginger Idiot" McClaren really that bad?

[On second thoughts, don't answer that]

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You Might As Well Go Down In Flames

I have always wanted to be a professional soccer player. I love the sport and I would love to get paid to play a boy's game, but alas I am more Willy Henry than Thierry. Given the opportunity though, I am not sure I would play the sport for money in South America. A chaos seems to envelope the sport down there, regardless of the level. I don't know what causes the chaos, but the fact that it exists would frighten me as a player and perhaps place me on edge.

Much like Gustavo Semino.

In a recent match between Semino's Chile Primera Division squad Huachipato and La Serna, Gustavo let the chaos reign and was arrested for it.

The incident happened after the Argentine defender was sent off for a pushing a ball boy who delayed returning the ball.

As Semino walked to the dressing room, the fan ran onto the pitch to insult him and Semino responded by punching him. One report said the fan had a tooth knocked out.

To add insult to arrest, Huachipato lost 2-1.

Video after the jump.

It looks like Semino may have punched out Huachipato's only fan.

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Uhh, this story is going to continue to get worse

Well, the story we covered three days ago about three Turkish football coaches who were gunned down at their stadium? The head coach Sedat Gezer and Goalkeeping coach Ismail Kurt were killed in the attack, while the manager, Engin Ozarslan was seriously wounded?

Well, it turns out that the authorities are thinking it was a mob hit.

This story won't be going away for a while, what with all the allegations of match-fixing and bribery going around the Turkish and various neighbouring leagues.

From Today's Zaman:

"Reports also indicated that the attack was organized and the assailants had been professionals. The assailants arrived at the club building in a minibus and stormed the office of coach Gezer (54) where they fatally shot him and Kurt (43). The attackers fled the scene immediately, shooting Özarslan on their way out.

Thirty-six empty bullet shells were found at the crime scene and the police have not ruled out the possibility of mob involvement."

This is a deeply troubling development, and one that FIFA should keep an eye on. After all, the level of mafia and mob involvement in soccer worldwide is a massive concern [especially in South East Asia, where the gambling rings rack up billions of dollars in profits], and if these suspicions are confirmed, football's governing body is going to have to look long and hard at possible ways to safeguard the game, if that's even possible.

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The Colaship doesn't pay well enough these days

Bradley Wright-Phillips: fond of ladies' purses

When football players try and relax, the Law of Averages will dictate that for every player that is tucked in and asleep by eleven o'clock, there will be a few that stay out late, get in fights, film themselves masturbating on a webcam, videotape orgies with their teammates, or simply commit petty theft.

This week is no different, as Southampton stars Nathan Dyer and Bradley Wright-Phillips got caught on CCTV stealing money, cigarettes and cell phones from some bartenders' handbags at a nightclub.

One can only hope that the phones had some good ringtones.

Bradley is the son of former Arsenal & England star Ian Wright, and half-brother to Chelsea winger Shaun, and currently earns about $16,000 a week, while Nathan makes $10,000 a week.

The bartenders? 10 bucks an hour. A little lopsided, no?

The duo were disciplined for their actions, made even more laughable as the night in question was less than 48 hours before their next match against Ipswich [a game they drew 1-1].

It's no OJ-level of robbery, sure, but it's still pretty pathetic. If they make it up to the EPL, they'll need to try harder than this to get tabloid attention. Like maybe shaving their balls.

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Jailed player is owed money... the FA agrees

Sestanovich waits for his check

Here's a fun one. Say you run a company and one of your employees runs into a little bit of legal trouble. When the time comes for them to tell you what's happened, the employee downplays it somewhat and the problem goes away, until you find out what the real crime was and immediately give them their pink slip.

However, they're not going to jail just yet, and the regulating body of your industry forces you to pay the employee you for the time after he was fired and before he goes to prison.

It doesn't sound right, but it is, according to the FA, and the unlucky club forced to cash out a criminal? Non-league Grays Athletic FC.

The club doesn't want to comply, and the FA is on the verge of suspending them for their principles.

Ashley Sestanovich, a body double for Thierry Henry in some Nike commercials a few years ago, was a promising midfielder for Conference side Scarborough. He won an FA Cup Player of the Round award in 2003 for his goal to knock out Port Vale, and had bounced around through several clubs [Sheffield United, Manchester City, Grimsby Town] before settling at Grays Athletic in 2005.

He didn't get a chance to do much there, participating in just three training sessions and 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly, as he was caught up in the planning of a robbery during which a man was killed.

From the BBC:

Sestanovich, 26, was convicted of conspiracy to rob a roofing firm in Streatham, south London.

The raid led to the death of Thomas Fahey, 42, who was shot in the chest at close range while visiting his brother at the office in June 2005.

Now Sestanovich was jailed for eight years due to his part in the robbery while the two other men involved were sentenced to life in jail, but because he was still technically a part of the club when his initial arrest occurred, the FA wants the club to pay out $28,000 in back pay and wages.

Understandably, the club is pissed that they're being forced to pay out. Said Grays chairman Mike Woodward:

"I am bitterly disappointed in the FA's judgment, all they seem to want to do is take money from football clubs.

We are being forced to pay approximately £14,000 to a player who only had three training sessions and 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly due to his involvement in a heinous crime which saw a young father shot in cold-blood.

Unfortunately my principles will not allow me to pay this money from either my own pocket, or from the club's, and the directors are of the same opinion. I feel sorry for the supporters of this club but I hope that you will back me on this decision."

You can hardly blame him considering the club is way down on the financial totem pole, and that they're shit out of luck after the FA's ruling. The chairman has put a plea out on the club website for donations or assistance from former players who have gone on to bigger things in order to get this squared away, and for all our sakes, let's hope they do.

If they don't come up with the bread in two weeks, the FA's going to suspend them indefinitely from all football until the money's paid out.

It's absolute bullshit, but that's the FA for you. It won't reduce Sestanovich's sentence at all, but when he gets out, he'll have a check from Grays Athletic waiting for him.

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