The Arsenal Supporters Trust is a genuine organisation which is respected by serious Arsenal fans and shareholders.
An AST summary of the accounts (to November 30, 2008) tells most of what we need to know about the club’s current financial position.
However, Arsenal FC don’t do transparency. Never have, never will.
Not being an accountant, and not being qualified to comment on the legal side of business practices by companies, I can only give a cynical journalist’s view : I think that accounts are numbers prepared by accountants for each other. I’ve heard that accountants who move millions between divisions of a holding company, and do not show this in the company accounts, can be struck off. But I don’t know how many accountants are struck off in the UK every year.
We have always been told that the property and the football club are “ring-fenced”.
That is, entirely separate from each other. The last rumour I heard was that if things go quite well at Highbury Square now, the flats will make a loss. Since there can be no profits, the club are thinking of selling the development as it is.Would Arsenal do that? Is that the best option? I just don’t know.
In his comments, Nigel Phillips notes that Arsenal’s wage bill is 50% higher than it was when they last won a trophy in 2005.
Arsenal now have 54 players, not the 61 they had in 2005.