Arsenal chairman forced to defend £3m payment after Sepp Blatter comparison

Sir Chips Keswick has been compared to Sepp Blatter

SIR CHIPS KESWICK was likened to Sepp Blatter by an angry shareholder after the Arsenal chairman admitted that the £3m payment made to Stan Kroenke was just a verbal agreement.

 

The Arsenal AGM was turned into a shouting match as angry shareholders accused the Sir Chips of failing to answer questions fully on why KSE, an organisation owned by major shareholder Kroenke, was paid the sum for the second year in a row for consultancy fees.

With FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini currently suspended from football while their own verbal contract for £1.35m is investigated, Sir Chips was asked to spell out the precise nature of the arrangement at the Emirates.

At one point Sir Chips even threatened to halt the meeting after one shareholder shouted out to widespread applause: “Is there a written contract or is it like Platitni and Blatter's verbal agreement?”

 

“We don’t want speeches,” the 75-year-old replied. “I’ll answer the question, and the answer is that I am not Mr Platini, I am not Mr Blatter, and there is not a written whatever-you-wanted because as I have explained, good advice is where you can get it and how you get it and if you get good advice then you succeed. If you don’t get the right advice, then you fail.

“That is my last answer on the question, thank you ladies and gentleman. Please, no more or I shall have to close the meeting.”

Second largest shareholder AlisherUsmanov had written to the board asking for an explanation for a detailed explanation of the payment, but the best the meeting got yesterday was the insistence of the chairman that is was money well spent.

 

Sir Chips Keswick defends £3m payment to Stan Kroenke

“I don't know how many of you here run your own businesses but those of you who do will know that the best advice you can get is the quick advice from people, and this is the point, in other organisations know more about the problem than you do,” Sir Chips said. 

“If you are a humble enough to accept that then you go and you get good advice. That is precisely what we do at the Arsenal with KSE.

“I am responsible, ultimately, for the money management of the club and making sure that it is well spent. And I am really determined that that should continue to be the case.”