 | |
| Formation | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Type | Supporters' trust |
| Legal status | Community Benefit Society |
| Purpose | Football fans' advocacy |
Membership | Over 750 |
Main organ | Tim Payton |
| Affiliations | Supporters Direct |
| Website | arsenaltrust.org |
The Arsenal Supporters' Trust is the official supporters' trust of Arsenal Football Club, as recognised by Supporters Direct. The group, like other supporters' trusts, seeks to strengthen the influence of supporters over the destiny of their clubs through democratic supporter ownership.
The group was founded in 2003 as The Arsenal Supporters' Trust and is registered as an Industrial and Provident Society, which means the Trust is owned equally by all of its members. Each member has one vote in the Trust's elections. Though it is recognised by Supporters Direct as the official Supporters Trust for Arsenal FC, and holds regular dialogue with the club, the Arsenal Supporters' Trust is wholly independent and is not owned or financially dependent on the club or its owners.
With a membership of approximately 1,000, [1] it is one of the smaller supporters' trusts in the United Kingdom, but has a close working relationship with the club. AST's members include small shareholders as well as supporters and the Trust itself owns three of the 62,217 shares in the club, [1] including the so-called 'orphan share', donated by the club in 2007. [2] [3] [4]
The Trust has played a role in the ongoing takeover bids for the club by rivals Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov. Regarding Usmanov's bid as hostile, in November 2007 the Trust joined the Arsenal board's lockdown agreement to prevent a full takeover. [5] In May 2008 the Arsenal Supporters' Trust came down in favour of Stan Kroenke as a more likely long term, supportive, investor in Arsenal FC and published a summary of their point of view, following a visit to some of the sports franchise and TV interests of Kroenke in the United States. [6] The Trust went on to work as bridgebuilder between Kroenke and the Arsenal board. [7]
The Trust did not support their shareholder members selling shares to Stan Kroenke in May 2011 when his company bought the shares of two major shareholders Danny Fizsman and Lady Nina Bracewell. The Offer of £11,750 per share came about due to the death of Danny Fiszman with his Estate selling his shares, obliging Kroenke to launch a full take-over bid as he had exceeded the 30 percent threshold. Kroenke through Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE) had acceptances from shareholders at the end of the Offer on Friday 10 June 2011 amounting to 66.64% of the issued share capital of Arsenal Holdings PLC. [8]
The Trust launched 'the fanshare scheme' in August 2010 with the vocal backing of the club’s chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, as a vehicle for fans to buy part shares in Arsenal. More than 1,800 members invested almost £2m in the scheme, which gave fans the rights that came with share ownership, including the ability to attend the Arsenal annual meeting, pose questions on club finances and vote on policy. [9] In spite of the Arsenal Supporters Trust’s disapproval of Stan Kroenke, they disposed of the Fanshare shares on the scheme’s collapse by selling to Kroenke.
The Arsenal Football Club, commonly known as Arsenal, is an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. Arsenal compete in the Premier League, the top flight of English football.
A shareholder rights plan, colloquially known as a "poison pill", is a type of defensive tactic used by a corporation's board of directors against a takeover.
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company by another. In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to the acquisition of a private company.
Manchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. The club was formed as Newton Heath LYR Football Club, the works team of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot in Newton Heath, in 1878. The club split from the railway company in 1892 and remained under private ownership for almost 100 years, changing its name to Manchester United after being saved from bankruptcy in 1902. The club was the subject of takeover bids from media tycoon Robert Maxwell in 1984 and property trader Michael Knighton in 1989, before going public in 1991; they received another takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB corporation in 1998 before Malcolm Glazer's stake was announced in September 2003.
David Barry Dein is a British businessman, known for being a former co-owner and vice-chairman of Arsenal Football Club, and founding the Premier League.
FIH Group plc or FIH is a British conglomerate which operates in the Falkland Islands through the Falkland Islands Company. Its other main businesses are the Portsmouth Harbour Ferry Company, which operates the Gosport Ferry in the south of England, and a London-based art storage and transport company called Momart.
Manchester United Supporters' Trust is the official supporters' trust of Manchester United F.C., as recognised by Supporters Direct. The group, like other supporters' trusts, seeks to strengthen the influence of supporters over the destiny of their clubs through democratic supporter ownership. With a membership of over 200,000, it is the largest supporters' trust in the United Kingdom. MUST's members hope to be able to pool their funds to buy a meaningful stake in the club at a future date if the opportunity arises.
Wednesdayite is the largest independent supporters group for Sheffield Wednesday fans.
Enos Stanley Kroenke is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the WSL, the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League, the Los Angeles Gladiators of the Overwatch League, and the Los Angeles Guerrillas of the Call of Duty League.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as Kroenke Sports Enterprises, it was started in 1999 by businessman Stan Kroenke to be the parent company of his sports holdings. Today, the company has control of over five professional sport franchises, and one association football club that has two teams: Arsenal F.C. and Arsenal W.F.C., four stadiums, two professional esports franchised teams, four television channels, an internet TV channel, & 19 magazines which operate under the badge Outdoor Sportsman Group, four radio stations which operate under the badge KSE Radio Ventures, LLC, and websites.
Nina, Lady Bracewell-Smith is an Indian-born businesswoman who has since March 2013 been based in Monaco. She was a major shareholder and former non-executive director of the Premier League football club Arsenal.
Daniel David Fiszman was an English diamond dealer, best known as a shareholder in and director of Arsenal Football Club, and played a leading role in the club's move from Highbury to Ashburton Grove, now known as Emirates Stadium.
Richard Charles Lascelles Carr is a former director of Arsenal Holdings PLC ("Arsenal") and a former director and board member of Arsenal Football Club, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arsenal Holdings PLC. He held 2,722 shares (4.6%) in Arsenal till May 2008, when he sold them to Stan Kroenke.
St James Holdings Limited was a company set up by tycoon Mike Ashley, specifically to acquire shares of Newcastle United Football Club during his 2007 takeover. The company name was a reference to St James' Park, the stadium of Newcastle United.
Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov is an Uzbek–Russian businessman and oligarch. By 2023, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $14.5 billion and was among the world's 100 wealthiest people.
Ardavan Farhad Moshiri is a British-Iranian businessman based in Monaco. He is the chairman and a shareholder of USM, a diversified Russian holding company with significant interests across the metals and mining, telecoms, technology and internet sectors.
The ownership of Arsenal F.C. and Arsenal W.F.C. is considerably different from that of other clubs in English football for men and women. It is owned by a parent company, Arsenal Holdings plc, which has relatively few shares which are infrequently traded. Historically, the club has been owned by descendants of the Bracewell-Smith and Hill-Wood families. The club attracted outside interest as two rival tycoons, Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov, acquired significant share holdings in 2007. In August 2018, Kroenke's offer of £550 million for Usmanov's share was accepted, and Kroenke bought out the remainder of the shares to become the club's sole shareholder.
Josh Kroenke is an American heir to the Walmart family inheritance and to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, his father's sports-media conglomerate. He is involved in running the Denver Nuggets basketball franchise, the Colorado Avalanche ice hockey franchise, the Colorado Rapids, and English football club Arsenal. The company co-owns Elitch Gardens Theme Park as well.
Club 1872 is a supporters group for fans of the Scottish football club Rangers.
| Teams |
|
|---|---|
| History | |
| Home stadiums |
|
| Training grounds |
|
| Players | |
| Rivalries | |
| Songs |
|
| Media |
|
| Supporters | |
| Related articles | |
| Related clubs | |
