By Sunshine
June 7 2005

If there’s one thing that annoys me it’s hypocrisy. I can’t actually make my mind up if I’m more irked by ignorant people or by so-called intelligent people being hypocritical. I’ll have to mull that one over. Anyway, I’ve read a few opinions in the press about how Tottenham should report Chelsea Ltd to the Premier League regarding the illegal approach by the West London club to Spurs’ Director of Football, Frank Arnesen.

I would also like to take this opportunity to rubbish the growing belief that in Danish, when put next to each other, the letters “f” and “r” (as in ‘Frank’) are pronounced ‘w’.

Chelsea were found guilty of tapping up Ashley Cole, which in turn has lead to AFC having a key player in an untenable position at the club, a situation which will no doubt negatively affect his market value, as well as deprive the club of his not inconsiderable talent on the field of play. Naturally, I find this apt, since I don’t believe for one moment that AFC were squeaky clean in the Campbell affair a while back and they are certainly no champions of virtue or high morals after their little scam which involved paying the vast majority of their players’ wages into off-shore accounts in order to avoid the payment of tax (and that’s without going back to dig up the well-documented dirt on their chequered past).

How did the Premier League see fit to ‘punish’ Chelsea?
A £300k fine (less than they spend each year on purchasing scented bog rolls for the facilities down at their training lodge), a suspended 3 point deduction (which curiously, couldn’t be triggered by the sort of complaint that Spurs could register) and a £200k fine for Mourinho (who earns somewhere in the region of £5m a year, I’m sure he’s devastated).

The effect this punishment had on Chelsea is clear by their subsequent actions: They went out and tapped up one of the most important figures, the Director of Football, at a rival Premiership club. The man charged with the task of re-establishing Spurs amongst the Premiership’s elite, re-organising the football side of the club, a man a third of the way through a 3 year contract. Not only did they tap him up, they did so after Spurs had formally refused them permission to approach him.

Now, let’s make one thing crystal clear: AFC registered a complaint to the Premiership not only because they were angered by Chelsea’s actions, but also because they thought there was a chance of their rivals being docked points next season. AFC aimed to profit from the situation. In theory, a points deduction would see the other 19 clubs benefit, but in practice, only AFC and Man U would be advantaged.

As an aside, that AFC, despite their known influence on the Premiership League, didn’t manage to achieve their aim is, again, quite amusing to a Spurs fan such as yours truly.

From an objective point of view, AFC’s stand against Chelsea has merely caused the injured party further trouble. Cole is mouthing off about his career being ruined and details of the way in which the club conducted internal business has been splashed all over the back pages of the papers.

As if that were not enough, the punishment meted out by the Premiership League for such a serious offence represents nothing less than a humiliation not only for AFC, but for all the top flight’s clubs (bar Chelsea).

The rules and regulations have been shown to be inadequate and the penalties inflicted have been shown to be laughable.

Another aspect which should not be forgotten is Tottenham’s own behaviour, with the boot on the other foot, in roughly similar circumstances a while back: During a critical stage near the end of the season with only a few games to go, Spurs approached the then Southampton manager, Glenn Hoddle, who was under contract to the south coast club. To add insult to injury, come the summer transfer window, Spurs enticed (albeit by paying a king’s ransom) their best player to White Hart lane.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, as some might say.

This is the backdrop against which the situation surrounding what Spurs should do regarding the Arnesen incident should be discussed.

By registering a complaint with the Premiership League, Tottenham would be lending credence to a governing body which has humiliated football. A body (though the appellative ‘organ’ is, without doubt, infinitely more appropriate) which has clearly demonstrated that it is neither capable of, nor orientated to, delivering adequate and fitting remedy.

Chelsea’s actions have harmed Tottenham and the latter are duty bound to pursue just compensation.

It is not Spurs’ role to punish Chelsea, that should be the responsibility of the Premier League, a responsibility to which they have paid mere lip service in the still raw recent past, a responsibility which the entire sporting world has seen them effectively elect to shirk.

The belief that the Premier League need Tottenham to report Chelsea in order for them to take steps to introduce rules and punishments with which to regulate and deter similar behaviour is ill-founded. The Premier League have all the ammunition they need and until they revise their policy of ducking their responsibility, they deserve to be treated as an old gentlemen’s club of no importance or relevance to the modern business that football has, sadly, become.

The only way in which Tottenham will receive compensation for the damage done to them is to deal directly with Chelsea. ‘Out of court’ settlements are not uncommon between feuding parties and there is certainly nothing dishonourable about reaching an agreement in this manner, indeed, I would regard it as standard practice.

If Spurs did want to introduce a crumb of honour to this entire shoddy business, then rather than register a formal complaint, they would be better advised to insist on any compensation package from Chelsea including a public statement of regret by the latter for any disruption to Spurs that their actions may have caused.

That may sound naïve, but not nearly as much as turning to the Premier League for justice under some misconceived perception of what constitutes the honourable thing to do.


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