Arsenal’s majority owner Stan Kroenke is to face tough questions from minority shareholders at Thursday’s annual general meeting over a £3m payment from the club to his holding company.
As well as that payment, revealed in recent accounts and paid to Kroenke’s company for advisory services, there is also disquiet over the fate of the Fanshare scheme and ongoing issues over player recruitment.
While the AGM is expected to be less fractious than some over recent years, given the loosening of the Emirates purse strings to bring in the likes of Alexis Sánchez and Mesut Özil, the board will face tough questions from fans on a range of issues.
Kroenke, who bought a majority stake in the club in a £731m deal in 2011, has repeatedly dodged questions on whether he would take a dividend, but pointed to the fact he had never done so at his US sports franchises.
Among the list of questions tabled by minority shareholders ahead of the meeting, seen by the Guardian, they will ask: “Was a competitive tender issued for these services and can you tell us specifically what the services were, why they were needed and whether such fees will become an annual feature?”
Some fans are also concerned that a data-analytics company bought by the club in 2012 could be providing services to other KSE (Kroenke Sports & Entertainment) companies without receiving proper compensation, essentially taking money out of the club.
Despite Arsenal’s long run without a trophy coming to an end and spending restrictions imposed by the move to the Emirates being lifted, the questions also reflect ongoing concerns about player recruitment. “Once again Arsenal have ended a transfer window with tens of millions of spare cash not invested in the playing squad. At this stage of the season we are four points down on the comparative points from the same fixtures last season and have gone four years without winning an away game against a team which has finished in the top four,” says one.
“Does the board withhold these cash reserves from the manager and if not then why we are so short of defensive players? So much so that two weeks after the close of the transfer window the manager admitted we were ‘light at the back’.”
Further ticket price increases have also generated ongoing bad feeling among some fans and Kroenke and the board will also be asked to confirm there will be no further increases next year.
Other issues due to be raised include the lack of diversity on the Arsenal board, whether the club supports the proposal to stage a round of Premier League matches overseas and whether it will back a trial of safe-standing areas.
Questions about the imminent closure of the innovative Fanshare scheme, as revealed by the Guardian this year, have also been tabled.
One reads: “Can Mr Kroenke explain why he doesn’t want to support the Fanshare scheme, which looks like it will sadly close, either by issuing new shares for it to purchase or through the club continuing to cover some of the running costs?”
