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Board moves the goalposts and sides with Kroenke
Raoul Simons30 Mar 2009
WHEN Stan Kroenke first started buying Arsenal shares, the club's chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: "We don't need his money and we don't want his sort." Two years later, how things have changed.
The Arsenal board have now climbed into bed with the American investor, who they view as the best hope of keeping out Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
Today's announcement sees Danny Fiszman, the financial clout behind Arsenal's success over the past 20 years, appearing to endorse Mr Kroenke as his successor should the club fall to a foreign investor.
Mr Kroenke has made great strides in improving relations with the club's directors and has been a member of the Arsenal board since September. Nevertheless, those close to Mr Fiszman have expressed surprise at today's decision to sell a third of his shares.
Although he is based in Switzerland, the South African-born diamond dealer takes a close personal interest in the club he has supported since the Fifties. His favourite player is Stepney-born winger Danny Clapton.
A strong advocate of the traditionalist set-up which sees families which owned the club in the Thirties still represented on the board, Mr Fiszman has been leading the fight to maintain the existing structure.
As recently as last December, he declared how keen he was for Arsenal to "stay in British hands" and he was also behind the "lockdown" agreement of October 2007 which put restrictions on the sale of directors' shares.
Mr Fiszman insists the Kroenke sale is a one-off and does not affect his long-term commitment, but a club so desperate to remain English is now nearly 50 per cent foreign-owned.
In terms of the day-to-day running, little will change. The biggest issue, however, is the future of manager Arsene Wenger. His contract expires in 2011 and he continues to be admired by Real Madrid. How will the ownership uncertainty affect his plans?
