Arsenal became the latest English soccer giant to fall into foreign hands yesterday when US sports tycoon Stan Kroenke took a controlling stake in the club after a protracted ownership tussle.
The deal announced by the north London club, English champions on 13 occasions, values the outfit at about £731 million (US$1.2 billion), according to a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange.
The secretive Kroenke, who has been building up his holding for the last four years, finally took control by acquiring those of two of the largest private shareholders — effectively locking a rival Russian businessman out of the club.
Photo: Reuters
“We are excited about the opportunity to increase our involvement with and commitment to Arsenal,” Kroenke said in a statement issued by the club.
“Arsenal is a fantastic club with a special history and tradition and a wonderful manager in Arsene Wenger. We intend to build on this rich heritage and take the club to new success,” he said.
Kroenke first bought 9.9 percent of shares in the Gunners in 2007 and he increased his stake last month to within 10 shares of the threshold that forces him to make a takeover bid.
A full takeover was triggered after his Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE) company bought the stakes of Danny Fiszman (16.1 percent) and Nina Bracewell-Smith (15.9 percent), valuing their shares at 11,750 each.
The majority of the remaining shares are held by Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, whose holding company currently owns around 27 percent.
Kroenke’s company also controls basketball’s Denver Nuggets, football team the St Louis Rams, ice hockey franchise Colorado Avalanche and the Colarado Rapids Major League Soccer club.
The 63-year-old’s initial involvement was met with hostility by the club’s board with the patrician chairman Peter Hill-Wood famously declaring that Arsenal did not want “his sort” and that the “objective is keep Arsenal English, albeit with a lot of foreign players.”
Hill-Wood, who holds a small share-holding, later performed a U-turn and welcomed Kroenke onto the board in a move seen as thwarting Usmanov’s ambitions. He is to remain as board chairman, Kroenke announced.
Wenger also welcomed the deal, saying: “I have worked with Stan Kroenke at board meetings over the past couple of years and I believe he has the best interests of Arsenal at heart.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite