Kevin Whitcher and Don Key
In response to a comment by ‘hi berry’ after a recent exclusive, commenting that the club has not been the same since David Dein departed, occasional contributor Don Key sent me a brief bullet point history as to how we have ended up with the club ownership structure as we now have it at Arsenal.
In Don’s own words, “I will try to keep this ownership soap opera simple”…
• David Dein was not excited about the way the Club was going with constrained finances due to the Stadium move and new money coming into the game – at Chavski in 2003 and others later.
• Dein’s influence at the Club was diminishing due to his strained relationship with Danny Fiszman and the gradual transfer of shares from David to Danny leaving Danny in charge (this is another story).
• Dein wanted to find the Club a billionaire and also cement his position as top dog at the Club… he had lost that crown to Danny.
• He found Stan Kroenke to “secretly” buy the ITV/Granada 10% stake and along with Dein’s shares (15%) and those of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith’s there would be a 40% block that would give Dein control of the Club.
• Nina got cold feet and talked to the Board before selling to Stan
• The Board went ape, marched Dein off the premises and the chairman Peter Hill-Wood declared about Kroenke, “we don’t want his sort here”
• Dein was then out in the cold and found another billionaire with considerably more billions than Stan in Alisher Usmanov.
• Dein sold to all his shares to Usmanov and Usmanov then went buying crazy, hovering up other shares to get to his current position of 30%.
• The Board (Danny) could not stand the thought of Dein back in control so did a deal with Stan to buy Danny’s shares (Danny knew he was terminally ill at the time) and then make a formal takeover for all the other shares in issue.
• The Board supported this and sold to Stan – Hill-Wood, Nina and all the others. Usmanov did not sell and nor did about 600 other small shareholders.
• Status now is Stan owns 67%, Usmanov 30% and 600 small shareholders about 3%.
• Usmanov’s “partner” in Arsenal Farhad Moshiri is now the 49% owner of Everton and pumping in money and sponsorship from Usmanov’s companies to try to take Arsenal’s place at the top table – this is the ultimate aim for Farhad and Usmanov as they have been royally frozen out at Arsenal.
• If Usmanov sold to Stan (unlikely), the club would be delisted as a quoted company, it would be the end of the October Annual General Meeting and Stan could do exactly what he wanted to do with the club as there would be no blocking control – extraordinary general meetings need 75% of shares to vote for a proposed resolution.
Thanks for that Don, and there are two points that come out of this. One is already known, but rarely highlighted. Ultimately, Stan Kroenke would not have got a foothold in Arsenal were it not for the Machiavellian dealings of David Dein in trying to overthrow the board of directors while he was still on it. Dein, of course, could not have known how this would turn out, but nevertheless, he instigated the current state of affairs. Had Lady Nina got into bed, so to speak, with Kroenke and Dein, who knows what might have transpired. My guess is that we’d still have Arsene Wenger, but would have bought better players and missed out on less transfer targets with Dein running the show.
The other point relates to Everton and the increasing amount of money the club are spending to secure the top talent, helped by a manager that seems to have settled well in the Premier League. This summer will tell us a lot in terms of the players the club attracts and whether or not it can hold onto its star players, an area where, for the first time since the departure of Robin Van Persie in 2012, Arsenal now seem to be having difficulty.
One other thing to note. Given that Manchester United have won the League Cup and the FA Cup will be won by a team that finishes in one of the top seven Premier League places, should Everton overtake Arsenal by the end of the current season and the Gunners finish seventh, both sides would still qualify for the Europa League. How do you like your football on a Thursday – Sunday/Monday cycle?
