The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) recently commissioned two independent reports into the Boardroom structure, corporate governance and supporter engagement arrangements at Arsenal Football Club.

One report was produced by TrioPlus and can be readhere. It focused on comparing Arsenal with best practice governance in the sports world and how the club could further strengthen its Boardroom, especially as a representative body to supporters.

The other report was produced by Corporate Governance Limited and can be readhere. It focused on the way that the Arsenal Board is structured and run in the context of modern corporate governance best practice. Five key areas were examined. These are set out below:

Area 1:  Board Composition

“An ageing Board, lacking in new blood and the breadth of professional skills required to run a modern, publicly quoted football club with a first-rate pedigree; no Directors have professional football experience.”

Area 2:  Conflicts of Interest

“Only majority shareholders’ views are represented on the Board; obvious presence of potential major shareholder/Director conflicts of interest”

Area 3:  Shareholder Accountability

“Limited accountability to minority shareholders or fans. More effective two-way dialogue required with them.”

Concern 4:  Power and Accountability of the Manager

 “Too many responsibilities and too much power is vested solely in the manager, reinforced by a lack of proper decision-making processes and too few independent board members have professional football experience to assist/support the manager”

Concern 5:  Strategy

“Major strategic decisions (eg focus on Financial Fair Play) do not appear to properly take into account the views of all stakeholders, the company/club’s short- and long-term interests, the appropriate balance of risks (including the risk that FFP will not significantly change the landscape). Concentrated focus on FFP increases risks.”

The AST has forwarded these two reports to Ivan Gazidis who has responded by saying that he and the club will study them carefully and that Arsenal take corporate governance seriously.

Glyn Taylor, Chairman of the AST Board, said:

“Historically Arsenal has had a strong reputation for its conduct as a football club and for having in place a Board that contains people who understood the importance of running the club as custodians, maintaining a good dialogue with supporters, and driving the club forward through success on and off the pitch.

“There have been several changes to the Boardroom recently, with notable key departures, and a subsequent takeover by now majority owner Stan Kroenke, who unlike almost all previous Board members is not a lifelong Arsenal fan.

“In light of these changes, and the way that modern football is rapidly changing, the AST felt it important that we commissioned these reports so that a debate could take place on ensuring Arsenal keep up to date with best practice in its governance and stewardship of the club, and because we felt it was likely that new appointees could strengthen the Board.

“But we wanted to test that opinion with constructive evidence and independent analysis. We also wanted to ensure the contribution of the existing Board members to Arsenal was rightly recognised.

“These reports are detailed pieces of work and we hope that they will be given serious consideration by the club and that in time changes will be made so that Arsenal can be at the forefront of the game.”

The Conclusions of TrioPlus are:

1.            Our brief was to take a snapshot view at the governance of Arsenal from a sporting and political perspective and also look at how supporter engagement might be improved.

2.            Arsenal is a competent organisation with a distinguished (yet ageing) Board and high quality executives.

3.            The Board is currently very compact but will almost inevitably need to change in the not too distant future and Arsenal has another opportunity to lead where others have followed.

4.            The recommendation of TrioPlus is that the Club should create two or three new Director positions with specific skillsets to enable them to advise the majority owner:

·         One to be occupied by a distinguished former player with appropriate boardroom skills who would be able to provide independent challenge and advice on playing issues;

·         One to be occupied by a female who has appropriate Boardroom and commercial skills and an affinity with Arsenal;

·         One to be appointed with the specific responsibility of engaging with supporters and wider stakeholders, ensuring that supporters felt more of a sense of involvement with the club and that their views were being considered in the Boardroom

5.            We also recommend that consideration be given to creating a football advisory board sub-committee, to report to the main Board, that takes more of a strategic and supportive role on areas like youth development, player scouting and football coaching infrastructure.