Visits: 2
By Joe Tanner
Last Updated: 20/05/19 10:27pm
Arsenal’s managing director Vinai Venkatesham has outlined Stan Kroenke’s ownership model and given clarity to fans about their aims for the club.
In August 2018, Stan Kroenke’s bid to buy outright ownership of Arsenal was accepted, maintaining at the time that private ownership would allow the club to develop at a faster rate compared to their competitors in the Premier League, with the club valued at £1.8bn.
The move was met with criticism from some Arsenal fans, as with the move to sole ownership, annual general meetings were brought to a close.
However, Venkatesham insists the owners have the ambition to win the Premier League and Champions League.
“Stan and Josh Kroenke are in sport because they’re passionate about sport and because they want to win,” he told the club’s official website.
“So when I talk about the strategy around making our fans all across the world proud of their football club and competing to win the Premier League and the Champions League, that doesn’t come from Raul and that doesn’t come from me. That comes from our owners.
“They’re hugely ambitious around where they want to take this football club and they remind us of that all the time. They’re massively involved.”
Kroenke has also received backlash for a lack of investment in Arsenal when compared to his other sporting ventures.
It was revealed this year that the multi-billionaire had not spent a penny of his own money on the club, while $1.6bn of his own cash has been put towards LA Rams’ new NFL stadium; which is due to open in 2020.
But Arsenal’s managing director maintained Kroenke’s commitment to the Premier League club.
He added: “It’s well-known that they have an American Football team, an NBA team, an NHL team, an MLS team and a lacrosse team, so they know sport and they’re really, really passionate about Arsenal.”
It’s set to be an important transfer window for the Gunners who have been linked with the likes of David Neres, Nicholas Pepe and Ryan Fraser while Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech and Danny Welbeck are already confirmed to be departing north London.
0:42 Venkatesham assured fans that any money generated by the club itself will be reinvested straight back into club development, in compliance with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
“They know we’re not going to go from where we are at the moment to delivering our ambition overnight, and they know that there’s going to be a whole load of work along the way to get there,” Venkatesham said.
“Stan and Josh and their direction is quite simple: every single penny that we generate as a football club is available for us to invest against achieving that ambition, and that is the maximum that we can ask from our owners because that is the maximum allowed through the financial fair play rule.”
