Kroenke May Be Cooling On Arsenal - 08/09/2007

The interest of American sports franchise owner Stan Kroenke in making a bid for Arsenal may be cooling. He will be in London on October 28th, ostensibly as a NFL owner to give his backing to the match between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants to be staged at Wembley. Although he owns 12 per cent of the club, his move to acquire half the broadband broadcasting rights from ITV seems to have stalled. Kroenke is understood to have paid a non-refundable £7.5m deposit on the £23m agreed for his half but has not made any move to complete the deal. Word is that he is unhappy with the way David Dein, the former Arsenal vice-chairman, ditched him to sell his shares for £75m to Russian oligarch Alisher Usamanov in return for chairmanship of a business that seems designed for a rival takeover attempt of the North London football club. Kroenke paid £6,800 a share for his holding, but the market price this week was £8,000, which could mean a tempting profit.

Boadroom unrest at the Emirates remains considerable. Red and White Holdings is pushing for a meeting with the board after buying Dein's 14.58 per cent holding, but Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood has insisted that he will not be party to any meeting involving the former vice-chairman. Hill-Wood, who went to Eton and then entered the Coldstream Guards, normally keeps a low profile. He is not a telegenic figure, but he has gone public with a rare interview with Sky Television, ostensibly to celebrate the new three year contract agreed with Arsene Wenger. Hill-Wood or his advisers had enough sense to have him filmed against the distant backdrop of work converting the Highbury stadium into apartments, making the subtle point that the Islington club will be accruing income to offset the debt it acquired when it moved to the Emirates Stadium.