Arsènal (31 page)

“I am not God,” he joked with an acquaintance recently. “He has more work than I have!” Maybe so, but Wenger's not known as a “miracle worker” without good reason.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“We think you should leave.” To be told by chairman Peter Hill-Wood that her fellow directors would like her to step down was not what Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith expected to hear just a few hours after being unanimously re-elected at the October 2008 Arsenal Holdings Annual General Meeting. In fact the re-election had been a formality under the company's articles of association that had to take place in order that the meeting could progress without any of the shareholders questioning what was going on behind the scenes, but it was in keeping with a day full of surprises.

At the meeting, Lady Nina had sat next to Arsène Wenger and Stan Kroenke. Few shareholders had expected to catch their first sight of their newest director, Kroenke – invited onto the board only a few weeks before – so soon. The nameplates on the top table had also initially included that of the most important shareholder, Danny Fiszman, but it had been hastily removed when it became apparent that he was not going to be in attendance – due, it later transpired, to transport difficulties from his Swiss home. However, several interpreted his absence as a sign that the club was no longer a major priority of his and that he planned to make an exit once he could sell up under the terms of the lockdown agreement in April 2009. (Until then no director could sell their shares and afterwards should they want to sell, first option had to be given to their fellow board members.)

The charade of Lady Nina's re-election to head off any shareholder inquisition was not the day's only irony. The directors had given their blessing – as they had on previous occasions – to the Arsenal Supporters' Trust setting up a stand at the meeting in the hope of attracting more recruits to their cause. To promote their manifesto, the Trust had produced a small volume,
Custodianship at Arsenal
, highlighting the ownership and good governance of the club over many decades. The Hill-Woods were well represented, and after the AGM had finished, coincidentally a bust commissioned by the club of Peter Hill-Wood's father, Sir Denis, was unveiled. The other notable family prominent in the Trust book was the Bracewell-Smiths, with Lady Nina the latest of a long line to serve on the board. Copies had been given to the directors, and it was favourably commented upon by the chairman. What he did not tell the meeting was that the immediate future of the just re-elected Lady Nina meant the publication was going to be somewhat dated within a matter of hours. It was a day that saw one dynasty at Arsenal celebrated, and witnessed another chopped down.

Lady Nina eventually resigned a few weeks later after failing to overturn the decision to force her out. Peter Hill-Wood admitted, “She came into the club because she took over her husband's shares and I fervently wish that she hadn't left in the way that she did, because we tried to persuade her to stay in a capacity which she ultimately refused to do.” She had been offered an honorary position, a symbolic role, but nevertheless one that would allow her matchday privileges in the directors' lounge. But of course she would no longer be able to harbour any aspirations of influence or power. “As a director she was not right,” revealed Hill-Wood, “but why not stay in a capacity that would allow her to maintain all the other status? But she wouldn't do that.” There was a palpable sense of relief amongst the directors after her announcement that she was quitting. “She confused me and upset me considerably because we offered her all sorts of olive branches,” admitted Hill-Wood. “I'm a reasonably easy person to get on with and as long as you don't totally upset the apple cart I'm going to go along with it [but] she was not very easy to deal with.” What he would not disclose was that one of the main causes of concern was the board's belief that she was becoming too well disposed to Alisher Usmanov's Red and White Holdings company, an unhealthy liaison with a potential predator, but one which Lady Nina vehemently denies. “I had been unfairly treated since the day I entered [the boardroom],” she said. “Danny Fiszman always kept his distance and you got the feeling that if you didn't fall in line you were marginalised.”

The invitation to bring Stan Kroenke into the fold was a key tactic in the move to repel a possible takeover by Red and White Holdings. Hitherto persona non grata, Peter Hill-Wood's view of Stan Kroenke had changed somewhat with the passing of time. “Stan Kroenke is absolutely the right kind of shareholder,” the chairman reflected after the American entrepreneur had been appointed as a fellow director, “because he's a wealthy man and isn't leveraged up like Russians. He's really dedicated to sport. He's very interested in football and trying to develop it in his country and very realistic about it. He doesn't think it's [Major League Soccer] going to rival the Premier League and he believes in what we are doing at Arsenal. And he's not remotely interested in taking over the club, at least he says so and I've no reason not to believe him.” “He owns his own franchises and has a big property portfolio,” Ken Friar added. “He knows a great deal about property and so it was felt that he could add to our understanding of both sports and property. He's also involved via his family in retailing, and we're involved in all those areas. We felt that he could bring a lot to the table and he has.”

Hill-Wood explained the reasoning behind his outburst – “We don't need his money and don't need his sort” – which he made in the aftermath of Dein's dismissal. “I said it because I had no idea who he [Kroenke] was. I objected to him because David told me he'd never heard of him and very clearly that wasn't correct. I rang him [Dein] up and said, ‘I gather this American is going to buy ITV's shares and I thought I'd let you know'. He said ‘Oh really? Oh, I heard something was going on'. And I thought ‘Uh-oh'. So that really antagonised me and I'd no idea who Stan Kroenke was. When I first met him I said I was extremely sorry about the remarks, [some of] which actually I didn't make. I shouldn't have spoken to the media. They did quote quite a lot of what I said and then embroidered it quite considerably. I said to Stan, ‘Look, I'm sorry, I didn't make all the remarks that were quoted but I did make one or two of them, and I withdraw them immediately.' He said, ‘Don't worry about it, I'm not worried'.” Reflecting on Dein's version regarding his involvement, Hill-Wood said, “I know David had made contact. That was wrong.”

With Kroenke on the board it was no longer critical to keep Lady Nina onside as a counterpoint to Red and White Holdings. She understood the harsh reality. “They [the board] didn't like having to take me in, but because of the dismissal of David Dein, I had 15 per cent and they had to put up with it. Now they've got Stan Kroenke they don't need me any more.” The chairman was sanguine about the potential dangers of forcing her out. “If her shares were sold, so what?” he pondered. “The position has changed dramatically in the last five or ten years. If some outsider comes in and makes an offer for the club in his wisdom and wants to buy it, that's maybe the end of an era but you can't fight against it unless you own 51 per cent of the thing yourself, so we took a chance [with Stan Kroenke].”

That Lady Nina had Hobson's choice was made clear by the resignation of her cousin Richard Carr from the Arsenal Holdings Board. It indicated that the rest of the board wanted to unanimously vote her off as they had with David Dein some 18 months previously. Carr's decision to step down ensured he would not have to face the embarrassing choice of whether or not to vote against another family member. He remained a director of Arsenal Football Club itself, although with the construction of the stadium and the ramifications of the property development, the power base had shifted away from the football club to Arsenal Holdings plc, the company that oversaw all of the club's activities, football or otherwise.

Whilst at one time Red and White had been buying shares for as much as £10,000 each, the going price had drifted down by about 25 per cent around the time of the 2008 AGM. If Lady Nina had sold to Red and White Holdings, their stake would have exceeded 30 per cent and they would be forced to make a mandatory offer for control at a high price that simply wouldn't reflect the current value of Arsenal. Moreover, in common with a number of Russian billionaires, the extent of Usmanov's fortune had dwindled dramatically as economic problems manifested themselves across the globe. Thus, the threat of a hostile takeover had receded somewhat. In February 2009, Red and White bought just enough shares to take them over the 25 per cent that would allow them to block any extraordinary resolutions the board might propose. The only real menace to the status quo remained Usmanov forming an alliance with Lady Nina with combined shares of 40.9 per cent, an ever-present cloud on the horizon to a board without a majority stake.

For Danny Fiszman, Red and White was synonymous with David Dein, and hence no love was lost. It was a message that came through loud and clear to those who had paid the former vice-chairman handsomely for his shares. Installing Dein as the chairman of Red and White Holdings, whose sole
raison d'être
was to buy an interest in Arsenal, was presumably a move to court favour amongst the club's supporters, ensure the loyalty of Arsène Wenger and have an experienced administrator at the helm in the event that they gained control. But even if Dein himself remained a soulmate of the manager's and a popular figure amongst many of the fans, that affection did not carry over to Alisher Usmanov and in time Dein's usefulness became questionable. He failed to gain his new enterprise any significant groundswell of support, and was an insurmountable obstacle to them having any meaningful influence or relationship with the existing board. Asked what exactly he did in his role as chairman of Red and White Holdings, Dein always sidestepped the question, although he kept his top-level contacts at FIFA and UEFA, whilst remaining a sought-after figure at football conferences.

In September 2008, David Dein resigned from the company. He denied he had been exploited by Red and White and became expendable when Arsenal refused to deal with him. Privately he explained, “It was my choice. I brought two billionaires [Alisher Usmanov and Stan Kroenke] in. The exercise had run its course. It is no bad thing it has come to an end, I want to retain my independence and call it as I see it.” He was now no longer an
habitué
of the Red and White corpor ate box and had to watch the game from his Club Level seats. (He has four together with several in the upper level, most of which are given away to charity and friends on a match-by-match basis.) Subsequently, Red and White were granted four seats in the directors' box and a table in the directors' dining room at the Emirates. It was a clear signal that with Dein out of the way, relations had begun to thaw.

But it was too late for Lady Nina. The lockdown agreement was the equivalent of a marriage and the suspicion amongst the board was that Lady Nina might have been playing away. She claims that she was frozen out after committing the apparent minor misdemeanor of visiting the Red and White box at the Emirates at half time during one match. The invite came from Usmanov's partner, Farhad Moshiri, whom Lady Nina asserts only wanted to introduce her to his sister. Her downfall was in the timing. If the meeting had occurred after Dein's departure from Red and White or in the directors' lounge then perhaps there would have been no repercussions. The final Bracewell-Smith to serve as a director at Arsenal had left with a bitter taste. “Dismissing a director is taking matters to an extreme,” she said. “And the timing was callous [half an hour after the directors' lunch following the AGM]. People shouldn't behave like that to a woman.”

What seems likely is that Lady Nina not only wanted to have more input reflecting the size of her shareholding, but she found herself increasingly at odds with the board's decisions. She conceded that there was “one particular aspect [that may have caused friction]. I didn't accept the plurality of the shareholding.” She certainly felt that she had as much to contribute as her elderly colleagues. In a telephone conversation her friend Geoffrey Klass suggested to her that she employed the wrong tactics. Klass gently rebuked her. “You should have kept quiet, gone with the flow and realised how lucky you were. I was jealous of you,” he said. “You were a director of a fantastic football club. They wouldn't even let me sit in the directors' box.” (When he had a substantial shareholding – four per cent – Klass had asked for a seat in the box and was politely refused.) Irritated, she exclaimed “You think so little of me,” and promptly put the phone down on him.

Though in hindsight Lady Nina feels “I could have been a bit more proactive”, her abiding feeling remains one of injustice. “They [the board] wanted to remove me; they had other plans up their sleeve,” she said. One of these was the appointment, after a long drawn out interview process, of Keith Edelman's successor. The two leading candidates were Arsenal season ticket holder Paul Donovan, then CEO of Vodafone, and the Celtic CEO Peter Lawwell, who significantly had experi ence in property development. Lawwell was considered the favourite, but he decided to remain in his current post. Someone who knows Lawwell commented that, “as an ambitious man who had served his time at Celtic, perhaps he wasn't reassured regarding the stability of the situation he was going to inherit.” Rather than then appoint Donovan, it was decided to continue the search.

So septuagenarian Ken Friar had to hold the fort a bit longer, taking on the duties of two vital positions at a time he should have been enjoying his well-earned retirement. Wenger himself later admitted, “It [was] important for the club to get someone because we always relied on Ken, who had to do absolutely everything and that's too much for one man.” With his tenure as acting MD lasting only a matter of months, Friar certainly wasn't going to make any major long-term decisions and as a result the club marked time. All the right things were said about supporting Arsène Wenger, but the manager was working a lot harder than he had to when David Dein was around: any weeks without a midweek fixture were often filled by an overseas recruitment trip. (After “the most disappointing week” of his Arsenal tenure – humbled by Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final and having the heaviest home loss inflicted on them in 20 years by Chelsea in the Premier League – he couldn't wait to get on a plane to France with next season's reinforcements top of his agenda.)