Hypocritical Dein Cannot Be Trusted
990 comments August 31st, 2007
“The Russians have parked their tanks on the lawn and are firing £50 notes at us.”
David Dein, 2004
On Wednesday afternoon, I had a phonecall telling me that David Dein had sold his share-holding to an as yet unknown Russian. The logical thought was that the buyer was Berezovsky – he has a box at the new stadium and has called himself an “Arsenal fan” in the press. Furthermore, he is understood to be on good terms with Danny Fiszman – from what I was being told, I suspected that Berezovsky had bought Dein out of the club for good and sided with the board as an investor.
Sadly not. After failing disastrously in a takeover attempt with Stan Kroenke, Dein has turned to an oligarch: Alisher Usmanov, the steel magnate. Stan Kroenke owns some part of the St. Louis Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Crush, Colorado Mammoth, and of course, the Colardo Rapids. He is a sports man through and through, with investments spanning American football, ice hockey, and soccer. Usmanov’s only involvement in sport to date has been as president of the Russian and European fencing associations.
Now, I am not in support of Kroenke’s bid. But the above does demonstrate that Usmanov is a man with no business history or tangible interest in football. There are reports of him owning a box at the Emirates but I can’t find any confirmation of that. And more importantly, whatever you might think of how Kroenke’s in-laws have run the Wal-Mart empire, they’ve got nothing on Usmanov.
There’s a fairly clean Times profile of the man here. But a bit of digging by arseblog reveals that the paper also shows the darker side to “The Hard Man of Russia”:
Within hours of Dein’s press conference, Schillings, the lawyers, issued a statement on behalf of Usmanov. It read: “Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear that our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records. Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.â€
I’m sure that pardon has nothing to do with Usmanov’s very close relationship with the Kremlin. Nothing whatsoever.
Usmanov’s minor partner in “Red & White” is Farhad Moshiri, who features in a well-researched profile by Goodplaya here. From what I can gather, Moshiri is essentially Usmanov’s British representative.
And yet he will not be the public face of “Red & White”, a company with a name that is so sickeningly sycophantic to the Arsenal fans, for they have appointed a certain Mr. David Dein as their chairman.
Dein must be delighted. £75m in the bank and the financial backing to have a good go at making him Chairman of Arsenal Football Club. And believe me, this is a takeover bid. Yesterday Red & White made this statement:
However, Red & White confirms that it has no current intention to make a takeover offer for Arsenal or to acquire a shareholding in Arsenal which would trigger an obligation to make a takeover offer for Arsenal save as set out in note 1 below.
“Save as Set out in note 1”, eh? Let’s have a look at note 1:
Note 1
For the purposes Rule 2.8 of the Takeover Code (the ‘Code’), Red & White
reserves the right to announce an offer or a possible offer or to make or
participate in an offer or possible offer for Arsenal and/or take any other
action which would otherwise be restricted under Rule 2.8 of the Code within six
months from the date of this announcement if there is a material change in
circumstances or in the event that:– an agreement or recommendation from the board of Arsenal is
forthcoming; or– there is an announcement of an offer or potential offer for Arsenal
by a third party; or– Arsenal announces a ‘ whitewash proposal’ (as described in Note 1 of
the Notes on Dispensations from Rule 9 of the Code) or a reverse takeover (as described in Note 2 to Rule 3.2 of the Code); or– there is an early termination of the Arsenal Board’s publicly
announced agreement not to dispose of their interests in Arsenal for one year from 18 April 2007.
To translate, what Red & White are essentially saying is:
There won’t be takeover bid*.
*Unless there’s a takeover bid.
Now, let’s look at what Dein has actually done. Putting aside the hypocritical statement at the top of this article (which is hard, considering how laughable it seems now), this is a guy who tried to sell of the club to Kroenke behind the board’s back. Now, thrown out of the club for his misdemeanours, he has seemingly dropped Kroenke like a stone to sell to the highest bidder: Usmanov. Why? Because he doesn’t care where the money comes from. There’s no substance to Dein’s ambition. All he wants it to be Chairman and weild power at the club he supports.
Well, that’s what I want too. I’d love to have Arsenal as my own private toy. But I’d never do it. Firstly because I can’t afford it, but more importantly because I do not have a problem with the current Arsenal board. Dein does – a very personal problem, which he is turning into a war. But look at it this way: yesterday Keith Edelman said
We have ample cash resources for the manager to invest in the team and the squad. The manager caught his targets this year well within his budgets.
Do you think he is lying to us? With our financial results about to be published, could he afford to paint a falsifed picture of the economic condition of the club? Many of you will back Red & White because you are frustrated at the lack of investment in the team. But that is the free choice of Arsene rather than the enforcement of the board.
You can only imagine that Arsene knew this was coming. I sincerely doubt it will effect his contract one way or the other. But both Red & White and the current board share one common goal – to keep Wenger in charge. That means that nothing will change. Do you think that just because Dein comes back Wenger will suddenly feel free to spend £100m a Summer on a bunch of overpaid Galacticos? It just won’t happen.
So what will happen now? Well, I imagine that Usmanov and the board will enter a bidding war for Kroenke’s stake, in which there can only be one winner. Kroenke will make a tidy profit, and Dein & Co will be on around 27%. Apparently the Arsenal Supporters Trust back Dein’s bid – even their small percentage of shares would probably tip Red & White over the 29.9% mark and force a compulsory bid for the company, which would almost certainly be rejected. Dein will also request a place on the board, which’ll probably be knocked back.
But then they’ll get to work on individuals. Dein will offer board members Roubles beyond their wildest dreams, and at the end of the day, they’re only human. There will be offers they cannot refuse. They might see themselves as “custodians of the club“, but they are still people with lives and families and, ultimately, business interests.
It’s a slippery slippery slope from here, and I don’t like it one bit.
————
We’ve been handed a fairly easy Champions League draw, with another trip to Prague and a potential enthralling tie with Sevilla. More talk about that another time.
It’s the final day of the transfer window today. I can’t see anything happening, and I imagine we’ll all be talking about the takeover instead for quite some time now.
A final note: whilst all of your opinions are welcome, especially on important matters like today, and kind of racism or xenophobia will not be tolerated. My opposition to any takeover has nothing to do with the nationality or race of those involved, and anybody who makes those kinds of statement will be instantly banned. If you see it, report it. Thanks.
