Robert Exley
In the days before fanzines appeared around the ground in the late 1980s, many fans were forced to read the official match day programme while eating their half time meat pie and drinking their Bovril. Many will remember a section in that programme called ‘Arsenal around the World’, which in short was a fan on their holidays who had spotted a café, bar or sports shop baring our club’s name and sent a picture of themselves outside the establishment itself. However what about tributes that go that one step further, such as a team or its fans that names themselves after us in honour? Well many may recall last season when we were drawn against Portuguese side Braga (the team with the two sided ground) and their Arsenal-style Red and White shirts which they have had since the 1945/46 season. Many may also recall that due to their colours their fans openly referred to themselves as the ‘Arsenalistas’, however may have been oblivious to the origin of their Arsenal connection. There are two theories behind this story – one is that the club president, José Antunes Guimarães, had become an Arsenal fan as a result of his London business connections. The other is that the Hungarian coach of the time, Josef Szabo, was a fan of Arsenal’s playing style and requested the kits to be changed from green and white to red and white.
However, rather than just merely changing their kits, over in Portugal’s former colony Brazil there are two sides named after North London’s finest, however both play in what is the Brazilian version of the Ryman League. First is Arsenal Futebol Clube, based in the town of Sorisso, Mato Grosso State in the Central West Region of Brazil, who were founded on September 20 1991 and wear a kit akin to our red with white sleeve shirts. Arsenal Futebol Clube were an amateur side from inception until turning professional in 2002 when they were elevated to the second level of the Campeonato Mato-Grossense, which is the football league for the Mato Grosso state area. Their ground is the Estádio Municipal Egídio José Preima, which has a capacity of 5,000 and which they share with fellow Brazilian minnows Sorriso Esporte Clube. The other Arsenal side in Brazil are the Arsenal Atividades Desportivas Sport Club, based in Santa Luzia in the Minas Gerais state in South Eastern Brazil. This side had been founded as recent as 2006, but had just turned professional last year. They currently play in the third division of the Campeonato Mineiro, which is the Minas Gerais State Football League, in the 2,000 capacity Estádio Municipal Victor Andrade de Brito.
Over in Central America, on the Island of Roatan you will also find in the Honduras 2nd Division side Arsenal FC, who were founded in 1999. However the biggest side in the Americas to adopt our name in honour are based in Argentina. Arsenal de Sarandi play their football in the top tier, that being Argentina’s Primera División. The club actually wear River Plate’s colours, though Highbury had been their initial inspiration. The club were founded by brothers Hector and Julio Grondana in 1957, the latter is actually still today the president of the Argentine Football Association as well as a senior vice president of FIFA. Despite a shared love of the original Arsenal Football Club however it’s very unlikely that David Dein would hold Mr Grondana in high esteem. Firstly, as the International president of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup he may well have encountered Grondana, who claims that he informed the English delegation ‘Let us be brief. If you give back the Falkland Islands, which belong to us, you will get my vote’. Julio said of their reaction to his comment was that ‘they then became sad and left’. Also, Mr Grondana is a virulent anti-Semite and stated in 2003 that ‘I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee at this level. Its hard work and, you know, Jews don't like hard work’. If you’re wondering why Julio wasn’t ostracised Ron Atkinson style by the FIFA family for this politically incorrect outburst, well, in the words of FIFA’s main man Sepp Blatter: ‘Julio's a monumental man…we are friends for ever’. Whatever happened to the old ‘Stand up Speak up’ slogan, eh Sepp?
Rather amusingly, like it seems with our very own Arsenal, Sarandi’s version was to act as feeder club for Barcelona, albeit in an officially recognised capacity. In 2006 a deal was struck between the two clubs where Barcelona were given first option on young Arsenal players in exchange for improving Arsenal’s infrastructure. The deal fell through the following year because Arsenal de Sarandi couldn’t afford the infrastructure to keep up with the plan. Arsenal de Sarandi however have no real history of success and have never won the Argentinian title. They have however produced the player whose goal won Argentina’s last World Cup in 1986. Jorge Burruchaga started his career there in 1979, as well as two spells as manager, the last one ended in 2010. Jorge however is unlikely to ever be on Arsene Wenger’s Christmas card list for his ‘passive corruption’ involvement in the Marseille match fixing scandal in the 1990s, while playing in France for Valenciennes who drew 0-0 to secure Marseille’s 1993 title win. The whole Marseille affair is a bitter memory for Wenger, whose Monaco side had three times finished runners up to Bernard Tapie’s corrupt Marseille side of the early 1990s, many in French football still believe to this day a lot more in the way of corruption prior to 1993 remained uncovered, ultimately denying Wenger further French titles. If only we had such an excuse for a lack of success since 2005, eh Arsene?
