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Victory Through Harmony
By Phil Gregory
The Arsenal Supporters Trust has been busy recently. They gave evidence to the Commons Inquiry into Football Governance; indeed they were invited to give their evidence in person given how widely respected they are in this regard (unlike yours truly, slumming it with a written submission!).
Their submission was paired with a presentation given in tandem with both Arsène Wenger and Ivan Gazidis at the Emirates on Wednesday. Best of all, they’ve said that we should “keep an eye on the Mirror”, who are picking up on the noise coming out of Catalonia and starting a bit of a campaign against Barca. Not a moment too soon, and can’t say I will miss the words “Barca DNA” if I never read them again in my life.
Earlier this year, the AST started Arsenal Fanshare, a scheme which gives fans an opportunity to purchase a “fanshare”, which is in effect a small part of a normal share in Arsenal FC. With Arsenal shares being individually very expensive, the idea is to spread the cost of buying each one between a hundred of ordinary Arsenal fans, so that the club can become increasingly fan-owned. There are numerous benefits from purchasing, such as voting rights and an opportunity to attend the AGM but ultimately the biggest benefit is giving the AST more power to increase its shareholding.
The AST itself numbers around 750 members, who together account for 3% of Arsenal shares in existence. They estimate that around 10% of Arsenal’s shares are held by club supporters, a big stake that is spread amongst perhaps hundreds of different individuals. Given the backdrop of takeover uncertainty (thanks to one Alisher Usmanov) this 10%, which is scattered amongst various Gooners is becoming more and more important. Nothing seems to be happening with the Bracewell-Smith holding despite the Lady’s desire to sell, so anyone looking to increase their stake at the club will be sniffing around at this “floating” 10%.
The best situation for the club in my view is one not far from where we are at now. Our board members hold a significant percentage of the club, and have shown themselves to be fairly dab hands at running the club in recent times, all while taking no dividends. They’ve guided the club fabulously through the Emirates stadium move and subsequent years, and I’m sure I speak for many people when I say long do I hope they continue to do this.
The spanner in the works is the takeover situation: both Kroenke and Usmanov hold large stakes. As I mentioned earlier, the problem for Usmanov and his desire to buy up more shares is that Kroenke is now a board member, and there are a lot of unwilling sellers holding large percentages amongst the directors. This is great, as these large holdings are blocking Usmanov from going any further: he can’t buy what doesn’t want to be sold.
The unknown in the situation is that “floating” holding, the 10% owned by various supporters. In my eyes, what would be best is a situation where this floating shareholding comes increasing under the umbrella of the AST. It doesn’t particularly matter whether this is done via these Gooners joining the AST or the recently launched Arsenal Fanshare scheme, but every share owned by the AST is one less share available for purchase by a 3rd party.
I can only praise the actions and work of the AST, and I plan on joining up as soon as I’m back in country and able to make the meetings. Such organisations, along with those running our club, truly have the best long-term interests of Arsenal FC at heart, and supporters should get involved and support them. Even if you don’t have the time to be active in the AST, do your bit and chip in with £2 a month.