the times | Wednesday December 22 2021 23
News
Arsenal Football Club has been repri-
manded by the advertising watchdog
for its promotion of a partnership with
a platform that sells tokens to fans using
cryptocurrency.
The ruling by the Advertising Stan-
dards Authority underlines concern
around the growing number of spon-
sorship deals between crypto-based
platforms and British football clubs.
The Premier League has promised to
investigate the growth in partnerships
between clubs and what is an unregu-
lated financial industry.
In July Arsenal announced a deal
with the Socios platform, which pro-
vides tokens that have to be bought us-
ing the cryptocurrency Chiliz. Fans
who hold the tokens are able to vote for
things such as the songs the players
listen to in the dressing room.
A reality television star’s brother was
shot dead in front of his wife and son on
Christmas Eve as part of a bloody feud
between major drug gangs in Sweden, a
court was told yesterday.
Flamur Beqiri, 36, was shot eight
times by a masked gunman outside his
home in Battersea, southwest London,
on December 24, 2019.
Giving evidence at the trial of his
alleged killers, a Swedish detective said
that Beqiri was “involved in serious and
organised crime” and described con-
tinuing violence between rival gangs of
international drug dealers.
Detective Inspector Kajsa Delmar-
Wigstrom told Southwark crown court
that Bequiri was part of an organised
newborn baby and dropped her while
running away. He and the baby sur-
vived but his partner, Karolin Hakim,
31, was shot several times and killed.
Adawi was recently arrested and
charged, along with 15 other people,
with offences including attempted
murder, preparation to commit
murder, instigation to commit murder
and illegal possession of firearms.
The court was told that the targets of
the plot were members of a rival orga-In October the Australian footballer
Josh Cavallo became the only top-flight
male player to come out as gay. Daley
will praise Cavallo’s “courage” but also
question why only one player has felt
comfortable discussing their sexuality.
“Nearly 7 per cent of people in the UK
identify as gay or bisexual and there are
around 500 Premier League players.
That means statistically there are
enough [gay] players for three football
teams running out on to that pitch
every week. At least one gay man at
every single club in the Premier
League, living a lie.”
Daley will also applaud the first trans
athletes who competed at this year’s
Olympics. He will cite Quinn, the first
trans Olympic medallist who won gold
for the Canadian women’s soccer team.Arsenal’s crypto ads breached rules
Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter Information posted on the club’s
website and on Facebook in August
breached advertising rules on social re-
sponsibility, financial products, mis-
leading advertising and qualification,
the ASA ruled, upholding three com-
plaints. Arsenal denied wrongdoing.
The advertisement described the
supposed benefits of the tokens and in-
cluded a video of the players Ben White,
Calum Chambers and Kieran Tierney.
The ASA said: “We told Arsenal to
ensure that future ads did not trivialise
investment in cryptoassets and did not
irresponsibly take advantage of con-
sumers’ lack of experience or credulity
by not making clear that Capital Gains
Tax could be due on cryptoasset profits.
“We told them to ensure they made
sufficiently clear that the value of in-
vestments in cryptoassets was variable
and cryptoassets were unregulated.”
Tim Payton, of the Arsenal Support-
ers’ Trust, said: “The government and
football authorities should intervene
and address the appropriateness of Ar-
senal and other clubs partnering with
these unregulated cryptocurrency
companies. Clubs should not be al-
lowed to use football’s popularity to
push an inherently high-risk product.”
Arsenal argued that it had posted
warnings on the page that fans could
lose money and the value of tokens
could go down as well as up, but the reg-
ulator rejected claims the tokens were
not marketed as cryptocurrencies.
An Arsenal fan token cost $3.35
(£2.50) yesterday. It has dropped in
value from $5.75 at the end of October.
Last month Manchester City sus-
pended a new partnership with 3Key
Technologies, a crypto-company based
in the Seychelles, after The Times re-
ported that five people named as com-
pany executives appeared not to exist.Come out for good of sport,
Daley urges gay footballers
Peter ChappellTom Daley will call on “brave” Premier
League players to open up about their
sexuality in Channel 4’s Alternative
Christmas Message.
The Olympic diver, 27, will highlight
the lack of openly gay footballers as a
problem for the sport, and say that his
“one Christmas wish” is for a homo-
sexual player to be comfortable enough
to speak publicly about their sexuality.
“That one impossibly brave Premier
League player steps forward and says, ‘I
am gay’. That person would inspire gay
people everywhere, give hope to thou-
sands of teenagers struggling with their
sexuality and save the lives of countless
young people who don’t currently feel
like they have a place in this world.”Ice and easy Less confident skaters were probably quick to send up a small prayer as they made their way round the rink in the ruins of old Coventry Cathedral, which was bombed in the Second World War
JACOB KING/PAStar’s brother ‘was embroiled in gang war’
crime network involved in “violent ri-
valry” with another group in southern
Sweden. She said that Beqiri, whose sis-
ter Misse Beqiri, 35, appeared in the
reality show The Real Housewives of
Cheshire, was “involved in serious and
organised crime”. The officer said he
was suspected of “international drug
dealing” since 2007 and had been ar-
rested on “several occasions” in Europe.
Beqiri’s close friend Naief Adawi, 37,
who lived near him in London, was
jailed for eight years in Denmark in
2010 for aggravated robbery with a
lethal weapon, which was described as
“one of the largest such crimes” in the
country’s history.
On August 26, 2019 Adawi was tar-
geted by gunmen outside his apartment
in Malmo while he was carrying hisnised crime network linked to Amir
Mekky, 24, who was involved in
“large-scale trafficking of cocaine and
cannabis”. Peter Ratliff, for the
prosecution, asked: “The allegation is
they were the targets because they were
believed to be responsible for the at-
tempt on his life?” Detective Inspector
Wigstrom responded: “Exactly.”
Daniel Petrovski, 38, another close
associate of Flamur Beqiri, has abeen
charged alongside Adawi; in June he
was sentenced to five years in prison for
an aggravated drugs offence.
The court heard that Zakaria
El-Khayyati, an associate of Mekky, was
murdered after being arrested and re-
leased over the kidnap of Petrovski’s
brother.
Beqiri’s wife, Debora Krasniqi, has de-nied that her husband was a criminal,
telling jurors he was involved in the
music business. She can be seen scream-
ing and cradling her two-year-old son in
CCTV footage of the shooting.
Anis Hemissi, 24, is said to have worn
disguises, including latex masks and a
litter-picker’s outfit, to carry out recon-
naissance before the murder.
Hemissi, who flew into London on
December 20 and left on Christmas
Day, was allegedly part of a team of four
killers from Sweden who are alleged to
have planned the shooting for about six
months. Hemissi denies murder and
possession of a self-loading pistol.
Estevan Pino-Munizaga, 35, Tobias
Fredrik Andersson, 32, and Bawer
Karaer, 23, also deny murder.
The trial continues.John Simpson Crime Correspondent Flamur Beqiri was
shot dead on his
doorstep in 2019