Kroenke Agrees To 'Lock Down' - 28/10/2007

Arsenal's board have received a big boost in their battle to keep control of the club. American sports magnate Stan Kroenke is ready to align himself with the board by committing to a 'lockdown' agreement that would effectively prevent him selling his shares to outsiders in the forseeable future. Such an alliance seemed unlikely earlier in the year when Old Etonian chairman Peter Hill-Wood declared, 'We don't want his sort.' However, his agreement would effectively guarantee that 60 per cent of the club will remain under the control of the board for the next five years with Kroenke possibly being eventually rewarded with a seat on the board. Kroenke is in the UK for a National Football League conference in London being held in connection with today's American Football fixture at Wembley. Basketball and baseball bosses are also contemplating fixtures in England, basketball's experiment with a subsidiary European league having been judged not to have worked. However, Premiership matches could go in the other direction. Kroenke hopes that his developing relationship with Arsenal will one day culminate in the club travelling to play Premiership fixtures in the United States. He commented, 'It would be great to have Arsenal play in America and there's a reasonable chance it could take place. If the Premier League agreed to it, you'd have it done.'