Matt Scott
Tuesday September 25, 2007
The Guardian
Chelsea's chief executive, Peter Kenyon, has talked in the past about his intention to "paint the world Blue". Arsenal's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, gave it short shrift. "Bullshit" was his emphatic response.
"I don't want to run Chelsea down but when you compare them with Manchester United and Liverpool, which you have to concede are two of the biggest teams in European football and throughout the world, for Chelsea to think they can suddenly dominate is fantasy," Hill-Wood added of the FA Cup holders.
It has been a difficult time for Chelsea of late, what with the departure last week of Jose Mourinho, the manager who delivered a first English top-division title in 50 years and added a second the following year, but Hill-Wood had little sympathy for a club whose achievements have been accompanied by brash boasts. He is perhaps uniquely expert on the matter of maintaining a respected football club - he is the third generation of his family to have worked as chairman of the current Premier League leaders and has been 25 years in the role.
"[Arsenal's success] started in the 1930s and [supporter affiliation] has been handed down from father to son," he said, although the course of his stewardship has not always run smooth. "It takes 100 years to build and 100 minutes to destroy. I remember in the 1980s with 1,000 people outside the Highbury boardroom saying, 'Fuck off Hill-Wood'. That is not something you forget very quickly."
Yesterday's profits announcement shows that as well as their history Arsenal have a bright future, from a financial perspective at least. As a result of the stadium move the Gunners have increased their match-day income by 105% year on year to £90.6m, enabling them to declare a £200m football-and-property-business turnover despite a £19m drop in broadcasting revenues because of a poor run in the Champions League last year. So strong has the off-field performance been that although predators circle the Emirates - most notably the Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who took his stake to 21% last week - the board feels emboldened to fight them off. "I like to feel that we are a stable business run by reasonably civilised people who live in England - for the most part, although [the largest-single shareholder and Swiss resident] Danny Fiszman doesn't all the time," Hill-Wood said.
"We understand the values of the club; we're the custodians for the Arsenal supporters. The shareholders control the shares but the club also belongs to the fans and the people who pay every day to watch. To disrupt the way it is run would be a tragedy. The board are totally united in resisting any attempt to wrest it from us."
To reinforce their commitment Arsenal's shareholder-directors and their associates, who together hold more than 50% of the club's equity in issue, will be ready to renew the 12-month "lockdown" agreement by which they are bound not to sell shares upon its expiry next April. The board suspects Usmanov will not stop at the "blocking stake" he has said he covets. They believe that by next spring he will have sought the 30% shareholding that would trigger a mandatory takeover bid, upon expiry of the six-month restriction entailed by his previous statements. "If Usmanov goes through the 30% post-February next year this is important, but he would still lose a bid," said the club's managing director, Keith Edelman.
And the central tenet to Arsenal's success will remain untouched: namely that Arsène Wenger, the alchemist who has turned his club from being a domestic contender into a European force, will continue to be given free rein as manager at the Emirates. Not that such liberty leads to extravagance. "Danny and I had dinner with Arsène in June," said Hill-Wood. "Danny said: 'What if we were to give you £100m to spend?' Arsène said: 'I'd give it back to you.'"
Gunners in figures
Group turnover £200.8m
Match-day income £90.6m
Annual wage bill £89.7m
Arsenal net debt £255m
Interest rate payable 5.3%
Projected net debt in 2010 £76m
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