Arsenal Are The Last Line of Defence

For years, I have wondered how Arsenal was able to keep its integrity by not allowing the big-money-spending businessmen to consume the club.

The heads of big and known world-wide clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Portsmouth, have fallen—and by fallen I mean risking long traditions and relationship with the fans—all for money.

In the past five years we have seen the market of the EPL flourish. Suddenly, all the big “players” from around the world want to buy a Premiership club of their own. Is this due to the reason that the popularity of the Premiership has risen significantly? It may be so, but it is not the only reason.

Looking into Chelsea for example, Roman Abramovich has invested a substantial amount of money into the club and that’s where a question comes to mind. How much has he made out of it? Surely, it can’t be more than the money he has invested?

In fact, if we base our calculation on the media, the club have made a significant loss of money for these five years. So why is Abramovich still a chairman of a business which loses money?

Surely, he is not a five-year-old who enjoys losing money just for the fun of it!

A few others have followed Roman Abramovich’s example and bought an English team of their own, which leads me to believe that it may be a big PR stunt. What better way to advertise yourself than being a chairman of a club in one of the most famous leagues in the world of football?

Another option for some of the owners could be that their clubs are used as a cover for money laundering operations. It’s a known secret how Abramovich has made his money (I may end up getting shot for mentioning this).

Similar is the situation in Manchester United, where Malcolm Glazer, a man with billions of pounds at hand and no previous experience in soccer, took over the club in 2005.

As a result, Manchester United supporters have seen the prices of the tickets rise dramatically, reminding them once again that it is purely business. So far the taking over of the Red Devils has done them well on the sporting pitch, winning two Premier League titles and one Champions League title.

But is that to the fact that the Glazers are controlling the club, or to the fact that they still have one of the best managers in the world—Sir Alex Ferguson?

He still has the necessary freedom to operate in the club, but for how long?

Clubs with more than 100 years of tradition have been turned into puppets by their chairmen, pulling the strings from above for pretty vague reasons. Some of the clubs have even become dependant on the money of their billionaires.

Some people will not agree with this theory, but that would not change anything. The facts are there for all of us to see. In the past five years three of the big four teams have been bought by billionaires with no previous experience in running football clubs.

Arsenal is the only team that is left untouched. Not that they haven’t tried. First, there was an American—Stan Kroenke—who wanted to buy the controlling stakes of the club. He met a strong resistance and still has not succeeded, although relations between the club and him have warmed.

Then, there came the turn of the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who nearly succeeded in his bid to buy out the controlling package of the club. According to www.wikipedia.org, he currently owns 24% of Arsenal’s shares which is 6% short of the  30% needed to launch a formal takeover.

Nevertheless, the unsuccessful attempts to take control of Arsenal FC have done their share of damaging the club. Most notably the resignation of Arsenal’s former vice-chairman, and the right-hand man of Arsene Wenger, David Dein—who believed the club needed money from foreign investors to be able to compete with the likes of Chelsea.

This is maybe one of the reasons why Arsenal have had difficulties in the transfer market for the last three years. Then Keith Edelman, a man heavily involved in the building of the new stadium, took the position vacated by David Dein in 2007. In April this year he also left the club.

Still, Arsenal are up there with the other clubs and have surprised a lot of people by keeping their competitive edge intact. Some would say yes, but they have not won anything in the past three years.

I would ask them does that really matter? Arsenal will eventually win something and there is no doubt in that. Arsene Wenger has taken a complete new approach to the whole situation, smoothly adapting to the constantly changing world of football.

In the end, what does really matter? Does it matter to be always on top and win everything there is to win? Does it matter to keep your traditions and be loyal?

There are different people; therefore there will always be a difference of opinions.

Undoubtedly, football is a money-making machine but it is not only that. For some it’s a way of life.

That should be considered too.