Arsenal all set to join League's foreign legion

David Mellor
1 Apr 2009

Are Arsenal about to fall victim to a foreign predator after Danny Fiszman sold a third of his shares to American investtor Stan Kroenke?

Fiszman says not, claiming: "Stan's involvement will be in the best interests of everyone involved in the club". Hmm, I wonder. But it's certainly in Fiszman's best interest.

The Gunners' top tax exile raked in £42.5million, or £8,000 a share, from the ambitious Kroenke.

Which suggests Arsenal shares are the thing to have in a credit crunch, because that's roughly the same David Dein got for his block from the Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, when the world was a very different place financially to what it is now.

Dein must be appreciating the irony. He was drummed out of the club after encouraging foreign investment, whereas the rest of the Arsenal board seem happy to pretend it's business as usual after Danny's nice little earner.

But is it? Between them, Usmanov and Kroenke (below) now have 45.5 per cent of the stock.

True Kroenke, having initially been cold shouldered by Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood as not quite the kind of chap they wanted to deal with, has now been brought onto the board, and has miraculously transformed into 'one of us'.

But of course, I suspect, really he isn't. In my view, he's a predator, biding his time, and if he finally does take over, Arsenal will be at best Aston Villa, with a decent American owner, and at worse, Liverpool, with all the troubles their US buy-out has thrown up.

And that day may not be long delayed. Usmanov has got around £125m tied up in Arsenal shares, in return for which he counts for very little at the Emirates. The club's largest shareholder may well decide there is a better place for his money, and maybe even another club to buy, where he can rule the roost and have genuine influence.

His 25 per cent is therefore, to my mind, very much in play, as is the 15.9 per cent controlled by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who was removed from the board last December.

She says she doesn't intend to sell, but that seems incredible, because what's the point in her keeping these shares? Even if you've got a bob or two, as she undoubtedly has, the £90m her shares are worth could certainly come in handy on a cold night.

Arsenal's new chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, is only too well aware of which way the wind is blowing. He has described Kroenke this week as "a model owner", which is, I suspect, what the American is about to become.

If I'm any judge, the Arsenal board are about to experience that old Chinese curse - May you live in interesting times.

The rest of us won't escape the consequences of all this.

Are we ready for a foreign-owner dominated Premier League and the changes that will inevitably bring?

I don't think so but that won't stop us getting it.

* David Beckham has got more caps than Bobby Moore but, as a footballer, I don't think he can be mentioned in the same breath.

Moore was one of the world's most complete players in his position and Beckham frankly isn't.

Beckham has a remarkable ability to strike a dead ball and make a telling cross. But he can't beat opponents, can't tackle, and has never had much pace.

The complete winger-midfielder he isn't, and never has been.

Time's running out for FIA to diffuse the diffuser situation

If anyone was in any doubt that Lewis Hamilton was a great driver, they were surely put right by his efforts in on Sunday. 

Driving a car that was manifestly off the pace, and starting 18th on the grid, he miraculously fought his way through to third place.

Who can doubt that when McLaren sort themselves out, he will be back in pole position.

What of Jenson Button? Well, we know he won, and congratulations on that, but was it him or the car? Remember last year, in a dog of a machine, he scored a mere three points in the entire season.

This astonishing transformation from zero to hero is also closely linked to the horlicks the FIA have made of the rule changes so three teams, including Button's, have aerodynamics the others don't have, and which they think are illegal.

The FIA are considering the matter, but won't adjudicate for maybe a month, by which time another grand prix will have taken place in Malaysia, and more points will have been lost by the likes of Hamilton.

And it could go on for longer than that. I'll be surprised if it is all sorted out by the time I catch up with the F1 circus in Bahrain.

If the others have to fit double diffusers to compete, that may not be possible until at least the Spanish Grand Prix on 10 May, by which time this season will have been irretrievably marred as a fair competition.

What a muddle, what a mess.

Africa action needed

Man's inhumanity to man comes no worse than the outrageous decision to continue with the Ivory Coast against Malawi World Cup qualifier despite more than 20 people being killed, and dozens more injured, in a stampede by fans without tickets trying to get into the ground.

This is not unusual in Africa. Last year, several fans died in similar incidents in the Congo and Liberia, which hardly bodes well for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

What will FIFA do about this tragedy? 
Not a lot, is my guess. They have ordered a report, but I bet the carpet under which the whole thing will be swept has already been ordered too.

KP homes in on truth

Kevin Pietersen is getting stick again but this time for telling the truth. Of course he's homesick. Who wouldn't be after a seemingly endless Caribbean tour, that never amounted to much, and is now utterly futile, with a bunch of Twenty20 and one-day internationals no one cares about.

On Friday there's a deciding one-day match, because the series stands at 2–2. Are you bovvered? I thought not. There used to be a few one-day games as curtain raisers to a Test series but all that has changed.

To put them at the end simply invites the kind of response Pietersen gave, that I bet all the players are thinking, but only he had the courage, or the recklessness, to put into words.