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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 AUGUST 2018 20 FOOTBALL SPORTS AMERICAN billionaire Stan Kroenke has struck a deal to take full control of Arsenal by buying out Russian rival Alisher Usmanov, valuing the English Premier League club at around $2.3 billion (1.8 billion pounds) but enraging some fans of the north Lon- don team. Coming at a crucial time for Arsenal as they start life without manager Arsene Wenger for the first time in 22 years, the deal cements the position of the US sports boss among an elite band of super-rich soccer club own- ers in England. Fans worry however that Kroenke, relying on a loan for the bulk of the funding, will not spend enough to compete for players with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City or Paris St Germain, backed by money from Russia, the Unit- ed Arab Emirates and Qatar respectively. The deal ends a standoff be- tween the two tycoons, who had both battled for control, but it has angered the small group of well-connected in- dependent shareholders who see themselves as guardians of the 132-year-old club. "The Arsenal Supporters' Trust is wholly against this takeover," one fans' group said. "Arsenal remains too important to be owned by any one person." Kroenke, who largely avoids the media spotlight, owns a string of US sports clubs in- cluding the US Denver Nug- gets basketball team, the Los Angeles Rams American Football team and the Colo- rado Rapids of Major League Soccer. Initially viewed with sus- picion by the Arsenal board, the 71-year-old started build- ing his stake in 2007 as he slowly bought out the fami- lies who had run the club for generations. He said yesterday he had now received an acceptance from Usmanov to buy his 30 percent stake, adding to the 67 percent he already owns. He will now buy out the re- maining independent share- holders at 29,000 pounds for each of its rarely traded shares - more than the av- erage salary for a British worker. "We appreciate Mr Us- manov's dedication to the Arsenal Football Club and the storied ethos and history the club represents," he said. Usmanov, ranked by Forbes as Russia's 10th richest man with a fortune of $12.5 bil- lion, owns stakes in some of Russia's biggest companies including phone operator Megafon, iron ore producer Metalloinvest MTALI.UL and Internet group Mail.ru. "I have decided to sell my shares in Arsenal Football Club which could be the best football club in the world," Usmanov said in a brief state- ment. To buy him and the other investors out, Kroenke will pay 602 million pounds, us- ing 45 million pounds of his own money and a 557 million pound loan from Deutsche Bank. In a world where clubs are owned by billionaires who do not always turn up to watch them play, the independent shareholders formed a rare bridge between the club's board and its fans. Arsenal's annual meeting was always a feisty affair. At the last game of last season, when Wenger stood down, some fans hired a plane with a banner saying "Kroenke - You're next". David Kershaw, an inde- pendent shareholder, fan and CEO of advertising group M&C Saatchi, said he was concerned that the deal would not lead to a better performance on the pitch. "I think it's very sad that we're in danger of losing any transparency into how our club is run," he told Reuters. His comments were echoed by Patrick Barnes, a share- holder who has been going to Arsenal since the 1970s to watch the likes of Liam Brady, Tony Adams, Dennis Berg- kamp and Thierry Henry. "I'm disappointed it's come to this, it was a strong way to connect to the club when you owned a piece of it," he said. Kroenke now competes against the billionaire owners of other clubs such as Chel- sea's Roman Abramovich, Manchester United's Glazer family and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who owns last season's runaway winners, Manchester City. Arsenal fans have long com- plained that the club has not ploughed enough money into the team. Americans have had a mixed fortune as Pre- mier League owners, with the Glazer family rarely popu- lar at Manchester United, even when the club won the league. Arsenal finished the 2017/18 season in sixth place behind the two Manchester clubs, fierce local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Chel- sea. That marked the second season running it had missed out on the lucrative European Champions League. Founded by workers at the Royal Arsenal armaments factory, the Arsenal team have claimed the League 13 times, including three un- der Wenger, and are FA Cup winners a record 13 times. New manager Unai Emery, who joined from Paris St Ger- main, will be given a baptism of fire this weekend when Ar- senal kick off their new sea- son against Manchester City. Kroenke wins full control of Arsenal after Usmanov agrees to sell