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Arsenal trump Real Madrid as Mikel Arteta and Stan Kroenke at odds over £75m issue
Bending to the will of billionaires is an occupational hazard for Premier League managers, as Mikel Arteta has discovered in his five-and-a-half years working for Arsenal owners Stan Kroenke.
Arteta is paid handsomely and Kroenke has sanctioned far greater investment in🔯 the playing squad than has historically been the case at the Emirates.
Arsenal have lost over £300m in the last five years as a result, although their return to the top end of the Premier League and Champions League means they will have posted a profit in 2023-24.
In exchange, Arteta has gone on far-flung commercially-focused pre-season tours, smiled for the camera in dozens of sponsor pr𒀰omotions, and swall🤪owed the inflated fixture schedule Kroenke has lobbied for.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment don’t take money out of Arse💝nal but they do want to grow the brand and 🔯so that when they do one day sell the club, they will make a big profit.
Commercial 𝓀income is the biggest growth area, with the Gunners having lagged behind their rivals in the so-called Big Six for some time now.
However, Arsenal remain one of the biggest match🍒day income generators🔯 in the Premier League, with only Man United and Tottenham earning more through the turnstiles.
They want to expand the Emirates Stadium to further exploit their attractive London location and enormous fanbase, lifting the bottom꧋ line in the process.
But, of the three incom🌊e streams, media income is still comfortably the biggest earner.
TV and streaming was worth £191m to Arsenal in 2022-23, the last fiꦬnancial year on ꦑrecord. We don’t have access to their figures for last season yet, but it will be considerably higher in 2023-24.
But the Kroenkes – with Josh Kroenke now the public face of the ownership in North London – are always looking to push the envelope and, through UEFA and the Premier 🧜League, push for a greater cut.
Despite many predicting that it would plateau, the value of the Premier League’s domestic and overseas TV rights continues to trend up and to the right.
Simultaneously, Arsenal are continuing to bank more and more from the media rights that U🌠EFA negotiates centrally for the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League.
Last season when Arteta’s side were beaten at the quarter-finaꦡl stage by Real Madrid, the North Londoners earned a🐬round £79m from European football’s governing body.
But even with the riches on offer via the Champion꧂s League, KSE weren’t satisfied by the UEFA deal. That is why the co-launched the ill-fated European Super League in April 2021.
Although that plot collapsed, the threat of another brea🍌kaway has still consistently been used as a bargaining chip to lobby for lucrative changes at UEFA level.
Ultimately, that is what led UEFA to revamp the Cham🌺pions League group stage in the Swiss syste✤m model.
Arsenal have already surpassed Real Madrid’s Champions League income
Last night’s 2-1 victory over Girona saw Arsenal finish 3rd ⛦in the new 36-team Champions League table.
There has been much debate over whether the new🅰 format has been conducive to m﷽ore drama and meaningful matches in the group stage.
Whatever your position, it has at least been ext🧸raordinarily lucrative.
Only🦄 Liv💫erpool and Barcelona have pocketed more from central and merit payments this season so far. Arsenal’s take-home? £75m.
Significantly, as relayed by football finance publication FootBiz, that is more than last season’s champions Real Madrid earned throughout their🎀 entire campaign in 2023-24.
- READ MORE: £105m cut-off no issue for Liverpool and Arsenal as FSG and KSE set budgets ahead of deadꦓline day
How much can Arsenal spend ahead of deadline day?
With the January transfer window cut-off just days away, Arsenal have bee✨n heavily linked with signing a proven goalscorer.
Yesterday, it emerged that they had a £60m bid for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins knocked back.
Yet, it was only recently that Arsenal were briefing that, because of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), they were unable to spend big this January.
This is an increasingly comm🍸on tactic from clubs looking to pull the wool over their fans eyes and manage expectations when their owners are reluctant to put their hand in their pocket.
But despite their headline losses in r🌸ecent years, PSR-exempt costs and other factors mean Arsenal have more headroom under UEFA and Premier League spending rules than almost any other club.
