Arsenal fans: £3m Kroenke fee 'staggering'
Arsenal Supporters’ Trust has criticised the “staggering” second £3 million payment that the club has sanctioned to a company owned by majority shareholder Stan Kroenke.
Arsenal paid Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE) £3m last September, leading to heated discussion at the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) the following month that Kroenke would use the club as an investment vehicle in a similar manner to what the Glazer family at Manchester United has done.
The Gunners’ parent company posted a profit of £24.7m and a cash reserve of £193.1m in its latest set of published figures last week.
The club have now sanctioned another £3m payment to KSE, and AST has raised concerns following a summer where Arsenal were the only club in the top five European leagues not to have signed an outfield player to their first-team squad.
“It is staggering that once again Stan Kroenke has seen it fit to pay himself £3m from Arsenal,” an AST spokesperson told the Evening Standard on Tuesday. “Last year the AST questioned the club’s board on this payment and they were unable to explain what the services Kroenke provided were, and why there was no tender for a consultancy fee of such magnitude.
“If there is spare cash floating around at Arsenal it would be better put toward reducing ticket prices, paying matchday staff the London Living Wage of investing in strengthening the squad.
“[Chief executive] Ivan Gazidis always preaches that Arsenal are a self-sustaining club without any cash being injected into the business — if this is the case it is wrong that money should be taken out in such a way and breaches the principles of custodianship on which Arsenal used to be widely admired.”
The financial results published last week, covering the year ended May 31 2015, put the total turnover of Arsenal’s parent company at £344.5m — up from £301.9m in 2014.
The increase in profit before tax from £4.7m was helped by both a strong growth in commercial activity, including a lucrative new kit deal with Puma as well as player sales of £28.9m and property development.
Arsenal, though, also invested heavily in Arsene Wenger’s FA Cup-winning squad over the period, with an outlay of around £114m and increased wages now up to just over £192m which accounts for 58.4 per cent of football revenues. The club’s liabilities for new signings, some of which are part payable in instalments, rose to £80.5m.
Arsenal’s next AGM will take place on Oct. 15, and Kroenke has attended every year since taking over the club in 2011.
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