Arsenal are no longer paying a £3m yearly fee to main shareholder Stan Kroenke, the club’s annual accounts reveal.
The payment has become the topic of much conversation with the Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST) questioning the legitimacy of the ‘consultancy fee’ that was being paid to Kroenke Sports Enterprise.
The AST wrote a letter to chairman Sir Chips Keswick as the sought answers about the payment that started in 2014, they also queried whether it broke regulations.
The letter from AST chairman Glyn Taylor included the following: “We have serious concerns over £6million being paid by Arsenal to an overseas corporate entity related to one single shareholder and two directors (the “KSE Payments”), as well as wider governance matters.
“These concerns are shared by other shareholders as was evident at the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) in October 2015.
“From Arsenal’s public statements at the 2015 AGM, and other disclosure, the payment appears to have been made: without a pre-existing contract or competitive tender for services without fully considering whether there was a
conflict of interest; and potentially in breach of regulations.”
The club have not commented about whether the letter made any difference to the situation, just that the payment had been ‘waived’ by the American’s company.
Kroenke has been the major shareholder for five years since buying the shares of Danny Fiszman and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, taking his stake to 62.89%.
Supporters of the club have regularly questioned the financial state of the club with season ticket prices rising and a lack of recruitment in previous years.
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