He is not the outright owner of Arsenal Football Club but the American businessman Enos Stanley Kroenke or silent Stan as we know him best does hold a controlling stake as he is the majority shareholder with almost 63 percent of the shares.
However, that does not entitle the man to use the Gunners as his petty cash box, although most of us would not see an annual payment of £3 million as very petty. According to his page on Wikipedia though, Kroenke probably would as this year Forbes estimated his net worth at 8 billion US dollars, which makes you wonder why he is even trying to take this payment from Arsenal.
The reason cited by the accounts was that Kroenke Sports Enterprises (a grand name for him and his son Josh it seems) had provided ‘strategic and advisory services’ but when challenged about this by the Arsenal fans the board was not willing or able to explain just what he did.
And when you are paying big money to Arsene Wenger to run the football side of things (something the Kroenke’s know sod all about) and the chief executive Ivan Gazidis millions to look after the commercial side of things, it seems odd that we need to spend so much for a bit of advice.
Thankfully now we will not, as the Daily Mail reports that the annual payment will not go to K.S.E. and although they say it has been waived, the fact that a letter from the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust questioning the legality of the deal was recently sent to the Arsenal board is something of a coincidence.
Whatever the reasons behind it, the Arsenal fans have got what we want and Kroenke will just have to use a bit of his own spare cash to buy another ranch.
Bob.