In a new biography of the Islamic fundamentalist leader/real-life James Bond villain (take yer pick), author Adam Robinson claims that he (Bin Laden) became a fan when living in London in the 1990s, and was a regular on the terraces during the Cup-Winners Cup runs.

You may shudder at the thought of having maybe rubbed shoulders with the man back then, but Arseweb would like to believe that this makes North London ever so slightly less likely to become a target. Unless he's really pissed off about the ban.

It seems unlikely that Arsenal will find themselves having to enforce Mr Bin Laden's ban in the near future.

The book's called "Behind the Mask of Terror" and is released on Monday. See BBC news or Sky news for more, and to convince yourself that I'm not making this up. Although someone may be.

Further evidence comes from this Arsenal fan's guestbook from 1999. (I've copied the page here as the original appears to be flaky).

Bin Laden joins Fidel Castro, Robert Maxwell, Michael Portillo, Sam Fox, the Queen Mother, and many more on our famous list of celebrity Gooners.

(Thanks to John Old, and Warren from Up The Arse for the links. John also points out that there could be a connection between "Northern Alliance" and "Manchester United")

In this article in the Telegraph, Giles Smith comments on the potential usefulness of Bin Laden's Goonerdom to the opponents of the Ashburton Grove development (and quotes the page you're reading).