Emirates Stadium side subject to huge offer.
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An unnamed Middle East consortium is set to launch a £1.5bn takeover bid for Arsenal Football Club according to the Daily Telegraph.
The consortium have plans to transform the club into one of a major force in world football and have pledged to reduce ticket prices.
The bidders will look to make the most of the in-fighting between major shareholder Stan Kroenke, who owns two thirds of the club, and Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who owns 29% per cent of the North London club.
The consortium plans to initiate talks with Kroenke and the £1.5bn offer is almost twice the £800 million paid by the Glazers for control of Premier League table toppers Manchester United.
The bid will compromise interested parties from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and it’s unsure as to how such a takeover, if successful, would affect Arsene Wenger’s role at the club.
The takeover would be for a 100% stake in the club and would also see debts of around £250m wiped out.
The bid team will look to bankroll moves to bring in top new additions this summer but will still firmly commit to the ethos of the club to trust to youth and build a squad organically.
That such a story is brought to the media’s attention on the eve of the North London derby is perhaps a signal of the seriousness of such a bid, one that the lion’s share of Arsenal fans will no doubt welcome given the eight year long silverware drought.