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£2.7bn plot cited as Stan Kroenke’s main ally at Arsenal told it’s ‘already too’ late for U-turn

Adam Williams

Tue 28 January 2025 8:15, UK

When Stan Kroenke first bought into Arsenal in 2007, there was no FFP, no state-backed backed disruptor clubs and football’s financial ecosystem was measured in millions, not billions.

Fast-forward 18 years and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has increased its initial 9.9 per cent stake into total control at the Emirates after a protracted battle with Alisher Usmanov.

Stan Kroenke has also invested somewhere in the region of £1.3bn in Arsenal via equity and loans, but the North Londoners are still without that coveted Premier League title.

Mikel Arteta has run Manchester City close in the last two season. In 2024-25, Liverpool’s lead over the Gunners is not unassailable but another silver medal is the more likely outcome.

Arsenal will probably therefore remain the only major enterprise in Kroenke’s empire who are yet to win the ultimate prize in their sport.

Significantly, however, all of his major victories in sport have come in franchise systems where return on investment is all but guaranteed.

With the Los Angeles Rams, for example, Kroenke knows that the NFL’s salary cap, revenue sharing, and closed league system means he is quite literally guaranteed a profit every single year.

Analysis from TBR Football shows that NFL teams posted combined annual profits of approximately £3.5bn at the last count. Premier League clubs? They lost almost £850m.

Arsenal will probably post their first profit since 2017-18 when they release their 2023-24 accounts in a few weeks’ time, but the surplus will only be a dent in the £311m they have lost in the last five years.

Kroenke has put some of his own cash into the club to get them back into the Champions League, where the real money is being increasingly concentrated in European football.

However, aversion to risk is probably the central pillar of Kroenke-ism. Spending even more to take Arsenal to the next level is, seen through a financial lens, a massive risk.

That is the reason that Arsenal probably won’t sign a world-class striker – be that Alexander Isak, Benjamin Sesko, or another option – that supporters are pining for this January transfer window.

KSE don’t see spending £100m in as financially prudent in window when clubs have historically been held to ransom and knowing that it is – on balance – unlikely to fire them to the title.

The owners back every recruitment decision up with a risk-return analysis. And no, their thinking is not led by concerns around Profit and Sustainability Rules, which categorically aren’t an issue for Arsenal.

In essence, businesspeople don’t like volatility. That is partly the reason why 19 Premier League clubs (including Arsenal) voted to retain VAR ahead of 2024-25.

It is also why, given half a chance, the Kroenkes and their colleagues in elite club boardrooms across Europe will do anything to ensure the chips are stacked in their favour institutionally and financially.

As Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire has explained in exclusive conversation TBR Football, Arsenal vice-chair Tim Lewis is acting on behalf of KSE to do just that.

• READ MORE: Arsenal set to make make £140m announcement as Stan Kroenke delivers something not seen for a long time

Arsenal have inflicted independent football regulator on themselves, says finance expert

The European Super League project collapsed in April 2021 despite the backing of Arsenal, 11 other of the world’s richest clubs, and £2.7bn worth of finance from JPMorgan Chase.

The breakaway competition’s failure was a testament to the collective action of fans. At Arsenal, protests against the owners were attended by thousands.

Supporters can also be credited as the catalyst for Tracey Crouch MP’s Fan-Led Review of Football Governance, which called for the introduction of an independent regulator for English football.

Nearly four years on, the bill for the regulator – which has cross-party support – is making its way through Parliament and is expected to become law either late this year or in early 2025.

Arsenal aren’t happy about it…

Tim Lewis, the club’s executive vice-chair and right-hand man to Stan Kroenke, was one of a handful of executives to speak directly to the media earlier this month about their concerns.

But, argues Maguire, Lewis is on shaky ground given that the regulator was essentially prompted by the Super League rebellion which Kroenke’s Arsenal directly helped launch.

“Individual clubs are perfectly in their rights to express their reservations over the regulator,” the Price of Football author told TBR Football.

“However, I think Tim Lewis in particular here has to take some responsibility here given that his club was one of those behind the European Super League.

“The reason the regulator is probably needed as opposed to wanted is the failure of governance from stakeholders such as the FA who have failed to protect the game from other financially interested parties.

“It was a fan-led review and fans are stakeholders. You have got to have trust in the stakeholders across the whole industry.

“Both the European Super League and Project Big Picture were huge votes of contempt by the owners of football clubs towards the other stakeholder groups.

“I can understand why the smaller clubs are opposed because there is a cost issue as far as they are concerned, but if Super League had taken place then the costs would have been far greater than those associated with running the regulator.

“Everybody is acting in self-interest and I full understand that, but I think they have to recognise that the horse has bolted and they are still trying to close the stable door.

“It’s already too late. Filibustering isn’t going to progress things.”

• READ MORE: Striker scores just 43 minutes into debut for new club after Arsenal rejected chance to sign him

‘The Unify League’: Will Arsenal play in European Super League 2.0?

Though it hasn’t caused quite the same chaos as last time, the European Super League is officially back.

The resurrected competition has christened itself the ‘Unify League’ – and they want Arsenal to sign up.

This time, the Super League will have three distinct tiers with promotion and relegation, as well as a qualification system via domestic competitions.

A22 Sports Management – the competition’s organisers, backed by surviving Super League members Real Madrid and Barcelona – insist they have spoken to all the big English clubs, who they say are keen.

But whatever Arsenal and their peers might say privately, the regulator likely makes participation in the Super League a non-starter, and the so-called Big Six know this.

In any case, re-joining the Super League would be a PR disaster for the clubs that, it is no exaggeration to say, could represent an existential problem.

What’s more, some are sceptical about whether the Super League organisers themselves ever expect to actually launch the tournament.

Instead, one theory is that it is essentially a warning to UEFA that they can point to whenever they want to extract more cash for, say, participation in the Champions League based on TV share.