Usmanov may sell Arsenal stakes to invest in elsewhere!
In what is terrible news today, it has been reported in the media that Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov is considering selling his percentage of stakes in the club, in order to invest in another Premier League side.
Despite owning around 30% of the club’s shares, Usmanov currently has no active position on the board at Arsenal and so the Russian is unable to have his say in any official decisions that the club currently undertakes. Usmanov is known to not be keen on the way that Arsenal is currently run, with the billionaire understanding that Arsenal is directed more like a business, than a football club under the American majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. Usmanov doesn’t exactly have a fruitful relationship with Kroenke and with the pair practically rivals for owning the club outright, it is unlikely that the American businessman will be allowing Usmanov to take up any more ownership of the club, or to even have his say on a board of directors.
With this in mind, it is understood that Usmanov is now sick of waiting around at Arsenal, with little ambition being shown to run the club for its footballing product rather than its business returns. The Russian is now supposedly considering investing his money elsewhere, with Premier League side Everton taking his fancy. Usmanov is supposedly good friends with the Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and the pair may look to link up to buy the Merseyside club outright.
Even though Usmanov is a billionaire, it is likely he would pull his shares at Arsenal and put them up for sale, to then reinvest the money into Everton. Usmanov is the far more favoured shareholder at the club by Arsenal fans, much more than Stan Kroenke and so it is generally feared that if Usmanov was to pull out of Arsenal, then Kroenke would snap up the 30% ownership of club shares that Usmanov currently owns.
Kroenke has openly stated that he invested in Arsenal for the business, not for the trophies and this is also recognised in his investments in other sports sides worldwide. Usmanov instead favours seeing Arsenal return to winning ways and although of course he would like to see major returns for his investments, he also wants to the club to be run like a football team, rather than an business minded organisation. To lose Usmanov would be devastating for the future of Arsenal’s financial structure, especially if those shares are bought out by Kroenke.
Let’s hope that Usmanov doesn’t decide to sell up and that if Usmanov cannot be brought in, then somehow Kroenke changes his approach on Arsenal, although not that it is very likely.
By AH
Who cares?
Nygunner, your comment “who cares” may be thumbed fown and hidden but it is correct. Kroenke owns 67% of arsenal and completely controls the club.
Usmanov owns about 30%, has no say in what happens and is not on the board. If he sold to anyone else then they would also have no say in what happens so nothing would change, so as you say, “who cares”.
@jonm
Finally. Someone who sees through the cow dung…That thumb thing don’t bother me. Usmanov hooked a few suckers on here by claiming he would invest his own money to buy top, top, top, world class players. Key word there being”invest”…
I don’t give a fac. He has seen that we are just a joke hence he need to support a team with more aims than us. It might not be Everton but other team elsewhere
I see Usmanov just like an ordinary conglomerates. Business first, that’s the way of live. Nothing special about him. He’s definitely richer than Abramovich but has no balls when it come to football. He’s not love Arsenal the way Roman does for Chelsea, to where that all madness spending comes from. If he love Arsenal he’ll buy Stan stocks at any asking price. Money talk here, nothing more. USMANOV HAS NO BALLS, that’s all said. And David Dein is serving a wrong master.
Do we look like we care??? I dont fancy anybody from the arsenal board…but if i should make a wish,its i hope Stan ends up broke and lives in penury..Siphoning money from innocent fans and causing pain, greedy and selfish man deserves no good
He denied those claims…
Exactly! ?
Infact he bought the shares off of the other fella, who shipped off to Everton. ( I can’t remember his, not that anyone cares)
Anyways, Usmanov responded to these rumours by stating that he would never sell his Arsenal shares, as they are an investment that will be left to his future generations.
He is the only hope we have on the bioard to be honest. I wish Stan would FO but we are earning him too much money so he won’t.
@twonk
Explain exactly how he is the only hope on the board?
It’s all got to change and I think he needs to buy the yank out. Only needs a few friends and this could be done. I feel for AW now as it’s clear that it’s not him but the yank and the bored that’s not buying players. The money they get just from TVs rights is enough. To change this AW should stop taking the crap and come out and say what they are doing. Yes he will lose his job but it’s at a point where he can’t keep saying this and that.
Kroenke owns about 67% of arsenal. Could you please explain how usmanov and a few friends could buy him out legally.
He owns 51% mate
We really in the dooms era…
Kroenke owns about 67%, usminov about 30%. Shares do not pay a dividend. Kroenke is majority shareholder, he is in charge.
Usminov shares are worth what anyone will pay. Usminov shares do not appear to give him a place on the board. How much is someone other thsn Kroenke going to pay for something which pays them nothing back and gives them no control? Answer – not very much. The only person who can gain from owning usmanovs shares is kroenke, he could then, in the future sell the whole club rather than 67%. It will be s buyers market so kroenke will be after a bargain, usmanov does not need the money so will sit tight and see what happens in the future, perhsps kroenke will want to sell at some point and usmanov will buy.
Very sad, almost unbelievable ,that a club like Arsenal is going to end up on the garbage tip because of a greedy Yank a weak board and a traitor called Wenger.
Arsenal need to go on a decline for two to three years. lose matches , lose players and more importantly lose money. The product is world wide and has nothing to do with football so it will take a while for the profits to fall ,but, once they do Kroenke and Wenger are gone and like the Phoenix we`ll have to raise from the ashes. Not in my life time I`m afraid, I`m in my eighties.