Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal fraudster jailed

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A fraudster who made thousands of pounds selling Arsenal tickets he did not have on social media has been jailed for two years and 11 months.

Hussayn Hirani, 24, (30.9.1993) of Eagle Drive, Colindale, pleaded guilty to 28 counts of fraud by false representation at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday, 1 March.

The offences were committed between August 2016 and October 2017. Hirani would take images of real football tickets posted by others on social media, and advertise them for sale online.

Once sold, victims would be asked to make payment into bank accounts belonging to friends and associates of Hirani. The cash would be then be withdrawn at a later date and handed back to him.

No tickets were ever sent to the buyers. Hirani was originally charged with three counts of fraud by false representation, but as the result of a lengthy investigation carried out by the Met’s Fraud and Linked Crime Online (FALCON) unit and Action Fraud, 26 further charges were made.

Throughout the investigation detectives discovered Hirani also sold fake Wimbledon and concert tickets. He defrauded his victims out of more than £9,000 over the course of his offending.

Hirani was handed 25 months’ imprisonment for the offending between August 2016 and October 2017. However, he was previously arrested and convicted for the same offence in June 2016 and June 2017 and was handed a suspended sentence on both occasions.

Her Honorable Judge Dean reviewed Hirani’s previous offending and as a result handed him an additional 10 months’ imprisonment – a total of 35 months’ imprisonment.

Detective Constable Paul Allgood from FALCON said: “This was a lengthy and complex investigation, involving dozens of victims. Hirani betrayed the trust of all of these people and made a living out of lying. He arranged for the profit he made from these crimes to go into the bank accounts of his friends and associates in order to distance himself from the offending.

“FALCON and Action Fraud worked in a close partnership to bring Hirani to justice. I would strongly discourage members of the public from allowing anyone to access or use their bank accounts. You should never disclose personal bank details unless for a legitimate purpose, to an authorised individual or organisation. I would also encourage the public to take extra care when purchasing goods through social media.”

Arsenal set for lowest attendance in Premier League history

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Tonight’s game has not sold out. Even before the Beast from the East came in, it was not going to sell out. Despite what the “official” attendance is – which we all know is actually “tickets sold”, the actual attendance could be the clubs lowest in history.

Already this season, we have (unofficially) seen less than 30,000 turn up for a Europa League game against BATE Borisov, and the back-end of last season around 45,000 turn up for the Premier League game against Sunderland.

I would not be too surprised to see tonight’s “through the gates” figure dip under the 20,000 mark.

Back at the beginning of the 1992/93 season, 20,796 turned up to watch Arsenal v Oldham Athletic. At the time, the North Bank was being rebuilt so capacity was restricted.

The weather is bad, and will have a huge effect, but the reality is the game was not selling out anyway. There are a variety of issues that all go into the melting pot:

Apathy – Arsenal fans are fed up. Some would have already been planning not to go today before the weather and the last weekends game. They would have been looking to put their ticket on the ticket exchange prior to even the fixture change. Some fans have already thrown the towel in on this season, and probably will not be back until next season.

Then add in Sunday’s defeat. I wonder how many hundreds – or even thousands – woke up on Monday morning, logged on to arsenal.com to post their ticket up on the ticket exchange, only to find the game had not even sold out.

Arsenal fans are frustrated, and we have seen that throughout the season, with their being plenty of empty seats at the Emirates Stadium, even for an afternoon kick off on a Saturday.

Ticket Prices – When it came to general sale, the lowest prices were £64 due to it being Cat A. The most expensive price was £95.50. The ticket prices often leads fans to playing poker with the club.

The ticket exchange only opens when the game is sold out. This leaves fans with a choice, buy at £95.50, or wait for the ticket exchange to open in the hope of getting one at £64. Often the most expensive tickets take a while to sell out as many wait for the ticket exchange to open.

With the game changed to a Thursday night, it means even fewer people were interested in the high-priced tickets, and therefore fewer tickets being made available at the lower end due to ticket exchange note opening.

Late Scheduling – The match was originally scheduled for last weekend. This would have sold out.It was then moved to today, but that even had a caveat.

 

Had Manchester City draw against Wigan, they would have had an FA Cup replay. They would have been held yesterday, meaning that the Premier League game would need to be rescheduled once more.

The fixture was only set in stone on Monday 19th February. That was 10 days ago. The late scheduling meant that the Arsenal fans that come from far and away – both within the UK and abroad – were unable to make arrangements in terms of trains, hotels and annual leave, unless they paid through the noise for it.

Thursday – And the game was rescheduled for a Thursday.

We as fans might be used to mid-week games, but prior to this season, we had barely played on a Thursday. It is not a great day for football games.

Ticket Exchange – The Ticket Exchange is brilliant. It allows fans who have season tickets that are unable to go to sell their tickets on. But it only opens once the game has sold out.

Due to fans apathy, due to ticket prices, and due to a late change on the Thursday, this has meant the game has not sold out. Which means that those fans who can not make mid-week games, and usually sell them regardless of opponents or apathy, have been unable to sell their tickets on.

Thousands sell their tickets on the Ticket Exchange for every mid-week game. The 4 chaps in front of me travel from Devon and Birmingham. They can not do mid-week. The 4 next to me travel from Reading and Basingstoke. They are often missing for mid-week games as well.

Nothing to do with being fed up with the club, and all to do with logistics. They can not get home from many mid-week games (or are unwilling to get home at midnight with work the next day).

With the Ticket Exchange not opening, these few thousand fans have not been able to sell on their tickets, meaning their seats add to the emptiness.

The Weather – There would have been many who, despite the apathy and the late scheduling, would have still been going to the game. But with the weather over the last 24 hours in London, many of those will be staying away.

It is cold, it is snowing, the wind cuts straight through you. It is not the type of weather you want to be standing (or sitting) in an open air arena watching football. I wonder how many are now staying at home because they would rather be in front of a fire, under a warm blanket, with a cup of tea and a bowl of stew?

Yesterday, thousands could not get to work due to the weather. Today thousands can not get to The Arsenal due to the weather.

Trains – And due to the weather, some train companies are considering running a reduced service from 10pm onwards. Even for fans who live fairly local, on the outskirts of London – the likes of Loughton, Gillingham, Chelmsford and Romford – will now potentially struggle to get home.

Way take the risk on going to the game if at 5pm this evening the train companies decide to run a reduced service?

You put all of these reasons in a pot, and we could see less than 20,000 people turn up. The only ones are local fans who can walk to the game, or live on Underground lines such as the Victoria Line which is unaffected by the weather.

Last night for Tottenham v Rochdale, a little over 20,000 turned up – and a quarter of them were Rochdale fans.

The best bet is for Arsenal to call the game off. Reschedule it for two weeks; the weekend of the 16/17th March as we are now both out of the FA Cup. A sunny spring afternoon.

I am looking forward to my tea and stew tonight.

Keenos

Who is in line to replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal?

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Yesterday we discussed who would replace Arsene Wenger in the short term, were he to leave his role before the end of the season.

The reason this was discussed was mainly down to top targets not being available in the summer. Someone like Joachim Low is busy with preparing to led Germany to the defence of the World Cup they won 4 years ago. He will not chuck that in to become Arsenal manager 4 months early.

The likes of Andres Jonkier, Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti were mentioned as possible short term replacements, if Wenger were to leave this week. So who are the long term replacements?

Carlo Ancelotti – The experienced Italian is immediately available and could come in as a short term option who could be kept on for the long term if the club performs.

He is a Premier League winner with Chelsea and is one of the most highly rated managers in the game.

However, he has only won 4 league titles since 2000, despite having managed AC Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Critics will say he is too similar to Arsene Wenger. That he does not concentrate on tactics to stop the opposition and leaves a lot to the players to make decisions on the field.

He left Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in similar circumstance, and there is talk that his methods are now outdated. Would he just be Wenger Mark II?

Leonardo Jardim – when you have unlimited funds, and manage the likes of Manchester City, PSG or Manchester United, you do not need to be a coach. You do not need to improve players. If someone is not good enough, you merely sign a replacement.

In 2017, Leonardo Jardim led Monaco to the French league title, as well as a Champions League semi-final, with a vibrant young team. Up against PSG in France, he had to bring through and develop talents like Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar and Fabinho.

His team knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League three years ago and he has a contract until 2020. At just 43, he is young and fresh, whilst also have 10 years experience as a manager.

Joachim Low – With a set up that is set to include Germans Sven Mislintat & Per Mertesacker, German national team manager Joachim Low looks a fairly natural fit. Add in Shad Forsyth, who spent 10 years working with the Germany national team, and Low could fit right in.

With Mesut Ozil,  Shkdoran Mustafi, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Granit Xhaka and Sead Kolašinac all having come from the Bundesliga, German could be the new French at Arsenal.

The only question mark over Low is his club management credentials. He has not managed at club level for 14 years and he had 7 jobs in 5 years.

Brendan Rodgers – A lot of fans will mock any opinion that Brendan Rodger should be anywhere near the list of potential Arsene Wenger replacements. But it has to be remember he was one Steven Gerrard slip away from winning the title with Liverpool.

He has since gone to Celtic to rebuild his career.

Whilst any success in Scotland with Celtic is nothing to shout abut, his methods and experience would be suited to Arsenal. The biggest problem is the supporters. His appointment would fail to unify the fan-base following the intense and often angry debate that has surrounded Wenger.

Mikel Arteta – Currently working as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and, while he has no managerial experience and would represent a gamble, he is well regarded at Arsenal following five years there as a player, including two as club captain, between 2011 and 2016. He is well known to Raul Sanllehi, Arsenal’s new head of football relations, as well as to Gazidis.

Roberto Martinez – I thought Martinez’s name would no longer appear on lists involving “next Arsenal manager” after he was sacked by Everton, but he needs to be added back on. Not because of himself, but because of who he might bring in as an assistant.

Currently managing the Belgium national team, Martinez was joined in the set up by Arsenal Club record-scorer Thierry Henry, who saw working with Martinez as an opportunity to gain experience.

Henry returning would unite the fans. The only issue is having said that being managing Arsenal  would be a potential “dream” job , would he really give up that comfortable, warm, 2 days a week job with SkySports, for a similar paid job as Martinez’s assistant at Arsenal?

No Henry, no Martinez.

Keenos