The wranglings over English Premier League clubs is now beginning to sound like a script from Dallas. Here is a quote from tonight’s London Evening Standard:
American tycoon Stan Kroenke will now remain in the background for Wenger for the rest of the season and into the summer but chairman Peter Hill-Wood made it clear today he did not want any foreign interference. In an amazing attack he claimed Kroenke, who has an 11 per cent shareholding, knows “sweet FA about our football” and insisted “we don’t want his sort” at the club. Old Etonian Hill-Wood said: “Call me old fashioned, but we don’t need his money and we don’t want his sort. To sell for someone to use Arsenal as a lucrative toy to make money is completely unthinkable. I don’t know for certain if Kroenke will mount a hostile takeover, but we shall resist it with all our might.”
This is all following the resignation of David Dein, who was vice-chairman of the club and owns a 15% stake in the club. It appears Dein favoured the involvement of Kroenke and was given an ultimatum by the rest of the board. However, it is also being said that Dein, who has been a leading figure in the Premier League since it broke away from the Football League in 1992, will be back to launch a hostile takeover. Hill-Wood can probably count on the support of fellow blue-bloods Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith (16%) and Richard Carr (4%). But Danny Fiszman (24%) is a self made millionaire of humbler origins and might well be won over by Dein, with whom he has more in common. Meanwhile with $2 = £1, American investors must have something urgent on their minds to keep pursuing the Premier League clubs. Readers of this blog will know my views on that already, but my main concern now is to find a US sports franchise to buy at these exchange rates: any suggestions?
