Ivan Gazidis claims that the negotiation of new commercial deals will be as important as the move from Highbury to the Emirates in terms of consolidating Arsenal’s financial standing in world football.
The terms of the kit deal signed with Nike and the shirt sponsorship agreement with Emirates, both signed back in 2005 and later extended, have long been pinpointed by supporters as well beneath market value compared to rivals both domestically and abroad.
While the club have accepted that to be a fair assessment, albeit stressing that at the time they provided necessary funds to pay for the new stadium, Gazidis has increasingly used the chance to ‘upgrade’ said deals as a potential turning point in Arsenal’s fortunes both on the pitch and in the transfer market.
Again banging the drum for belief in a brighter future, Gazidis told the BBC how he expected an upturn in commercial revenue and UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations to help Arsene Wenger pay top dollar for the best talents in the world.
“As our financial capability develops, as economic rationality enters the world of football, our ability to compete at salary levels for the very best talent will be enhanced,” Gazidis said.
“As we look to the next two, three years we will have an outstanding platform on which to compete with any club in the world.
“Now we are in that stadium, the first part of our vision has been realised. Now we are at the stage where some of the commercial deals that were tied into the construction of the stadium, and enabled us to take that first big step, will be renegotiated.
“When that happens, we will take the second big step forward and that will be comparable in magnitude to moving to the stadium itself. At times it’s been a challenging project, but we will have catapulted ourselves into the elite clubs on the European scale and that, for us, has been what the last 10 years has been about.
“Very clearly, it will push the club forward and put us into the top five clubs in the world in revenue terms, which will be a fantastic position to be in.”
Paying lip service to the huge riches heading to the bank accounts of Premier League clubs, predominantly thanks to the renegotiated domestic and global television rights contracts, Gazidis also outlined his belief that England will be the place to be for the world’s top talents.
“We are seeing Premier League revenues growing and growing, and in spending-power terms we have separated ourselves from the other leagues.
“In general terms the talent flow of players is going to be towards the Premier League, with or without FFP. In fact over a longer period the increased stability will attract better owners and actually lead to further growth and an even more exciting future.”
For a long-time we Arsenal fans have, like beleaguered Communist Russia collectivised farmers, been told to believe in a brighter future while 5-year plans are implemented by our ‘all-knowing’ leaders. Given the silverware famine of recent years, the increased ticket prices and the constant flogging of our best talents its hardly surprising that supporters have grown fed up of being patient.
Of course we hope that these deals make us more competitive, but it’s slightly concerning that in effect we’re being warned that the status quo will be maintained for three more transfer windows over the next 18 months.
Anyone else have absolutely 0 faith in UEFA/FFP?
I have -273 faith in it.
Well played
Incidentally thats the true limit of temparature too if thats what you were pointing to its the nerdiest joke I’ve seen almost anywhere and Im ashamed I understood it.
Does this make you an “absolute Zero”? Mehaha. I thank you…
@Tappy it actually makes him a Kelvin
arsenal board actually expects big sponsor money is utter bollocks…arsenal haven’t won anything for years, they are losing their top players as any annual event for years, wenger is continuosly losing his support from his once devoted fans, so on and so forth.
In these kind of rosy scenario who would want to put huge sponsor money on arsenal…and I dont even want to start about UEFA FFP…
I have absolutely 0 faith in our board, UEFA FFP, sponsor money or players for that matter
Liverpool signed massive sponsorship deals recently and they are a mid-table team, and have been for a few years now. Arsenal will get massive deals as well, don’t you worry.
I also seriously doubt that the FFP will turn the football world upside down. It’s actually hard to admit but I liked the historical references 😉
“Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose”…
Reading the article was I the only think “Gazidis. Stop talking . you’re embarassing us. Constantly spouting promises and failing to deliver. Just stfu and let the football do the talking. No one cares. If you’re going to get lucrative deals done then just GET THEM DONE before you talk about it like you;ve done such a great job. Don’t count your chicken your chickens before they hatch. Jesus, this CEO and Chairman are always talking about how we’re going to do great and be the best team. FFS. DO IT MAN. THEN TALK. Outstanding Platform was supposed to be… Read more »
these cunts at the board.
their mission is to sell the vision.
what they don’t understand is that they can only act smart for so long.
if it goes on like this we are taking it to the streets.
fuck off ivan.
‘Faith’? What is this, a religion? We shouldn’t need ‘faith’ in sponsorship deals, not if Gazidis were providing the reassurance of some real facts and figures, as opposed to waffling on about the Arsenal journey/vision/narrative/way. He’s not keen on real figures, isn’t Gazidis, which is hardly surprising when the available ones don’t make cheerful reading. Take our commercial growth rate during Fox’s three years on the job: a miserable 9 percent compared to (say) United’s 110 percent over the same period. Gazidis’ excuse would be that we can’t judge Fox’s brilliance till 2014. I don’t buy this. Not all our… Read more »
being the first to give you thumbs up for your comment I can’t help but think no else read it because of its length
Bravo Miranda, spot on!
Gazidis is a brilliant sales man or rather spin doctor, I can see why he got the job.
He clearly talks the talk but will he & Fox walk the walk when shit hits the fan?
“brighter Arsenal future” …..and bonus, for Gazidis
We’ve heard all this dross twenty times or more. So why has he decided to come out with this agin ? The Spurs game ? Possibly.
But more likely he’s got wind of the protest march planned by ‘the Blackscarf Movement’ for the Swansea game on December 1st and is trying to head this off.
He should not be allowed to succeed.
Assemble Blackstock Road 1.30 pm for a march to the Ground via Highbury. Finish at the Roundabout outside the Armoury.
I don’t know about this protest. Really confused and angry at whats happened to the club especially over the last 2 years. I’m all for showing that we aren’t happy about it. However, by protesting its almost like we’ve been reduced to something less than fans. It just leaves an ugly taste in the mouth
if you seriously think he’ll give a fuck about a few dozen fans who are protesting about lack of investment (brilliantly before most of them will take their expensive seats at the game) then you, sir, are delusional
the only thing you’ll achieve is embarrassing yourselves in front of some amused sheepshaggers from the valleys
It may be delusional and this board don’t give a fuck about its paying customers let alone those that would protest, but at least these people are trying to do something about it. As far as I know thier argument is with the board and the way they run the club and not with arsene or the players. I admire anyone who is prepared to get off thier arse and do something rather than just accept the ways things. Would be a bit strange if they protested and then didn’t go to their expensive seats, as they fans of the… Read more »
The only way to make the board pay attention is not to go. If the fans agreed that no one would attend the Man Utd home game it would embarass the board hugely, but no one wants to make the sacrifice. They moan (quite rightly) about being unhappy but still give the board their custom. I had poor service from BT so I refuse to use them anymore, I don’t ‘march’ to the post box in protest as I send them another cheque. The board don’t look on us as fans but paying customers, and they’d prefer 19 different customers… Read more »
I agree corp, and the stadium will begin to empty naturally rather than on mass in the form of a protest. It’s happening now, the stadium is rarely full, season ticket holders are having more and more problems off loading tickets for games they can’t make and the waiting list had fallen drastically. Arsenals support is dropping that’s a fact, they have taken us for mugs and underestimated the depth of feeling among fans. It will bite them on the arse eventually. And that’s why anything that fans do to help bring the club back closer to its fan base… Read more »
Agree with Voldemorte about protests – at least they are showing some commitment – but I’d like to know what this particular protest wants. If it’s just demanding Kroenke put money into the club, forget it. 1. He’s not got any. 2. Even if he had he wouldn’t; taking money out not putting it is his thing. 3. He couldn’t give a fuck that a few fans are pissed off. As far as I know, even with his US teams – teams which, unlike us, he actually watches and cares about – he’s been impervious to criticism from fans or… Read more »
Too true Volders. I wanted to take my 6 yr old to his first game tomorrow, I thought it would be symbolic as my first home game was the north London derby in about 1981. They wanted the best part of £130, so he’s got to wait to the Newcadtle game. He got his Junior Gunner membership pack through the post today. Would it have cost the club a fortune to reprint the box so it didn’t have RVP and Song on it?
I will tell you what I believe will happen at that protest. -Lots of people will go for pints before the game that morning. A few will get emotionally steamed up on the sauce, and join the march. -Sky cameras will be following closely. They will look out for and film anyone who looks remotely dodgy and police on horseback keeping the ‘mob’ in line, looking concerned about nothing. Good TV. -Sky will interview lots of people, many well educated with excellent, eloquently put opinions,but they wont be shown on TV. The guy who’s had a gallon of guinness and… Read more »
That is unbelievable about the box midfield corporal. It just demonstrates they have absolutely no idea about our tribal attachment to the club and the way we think. It’s quite sad actually
“as economic rationality enters the world of football”
Hahaha, nice one Ivan…. oh wait, he’s serious!!!
Not selling your most marketable player,who happens to be the best attacker this season, will be a good start,
Penny wise, pound foolish.
If Ivan mentions FFP one more time i’m going to go mad.
it takes “mental strength” to keep hearing this over and over….
But i’ve used up all my “mental strength” listening to the sczesney and diaby are still “two three weeks away”.
…. Now this!
and resilience
Best comment of d week. 🙂
I have to say, after saying this for the 123rd time, he has finally convinced me.
Hail Ivan.
He’s slowly starting to get to me too …
Maybe AW does love the club and has hired someone to take us in the right direction, or maybe Ivan is in over his head and keeps stalling because he can’t close the deals with sponsors.
Either way, he’s right, time will tell.
Fuck this guy
No thanks, he’s no Giroud.
okay, like eeew!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i dont think giroud himself would appreciate this one here.
I was wondering with things going the way they were when we were going to get another Gazidis “The Future is Bright” Sermon. The man is empty suit spouting endlessly about utopian futures where Arsenal will “compete”. This club has lived off nothing but tales of rosy futures since the move to the Emirates. Fail to qualify for the CL this year and we see how big those 2014 renewals will be.
Can’t think of an Ivan i actually like? Ivan the terrible,Ivan Drago, Branislav IVANovic, Ivan Gazidis, the list goes on
I kinda like Ivan Drago. He was abused by his Soviet leaders. He really isn’t “that type of guy.”
the future is so bright we might need sunglasses
Good news that we’re going to be one of the top five clubs in the world. Let’s hope we’re still a top five club in our own league when it happens.
i think westbrom can boast of being a top 5 now.
“at arsenal we only compete with the best”
the best….;you mean norwich, sunderland, stoke, qpr,??, yes those best.
On BBC there are articles suggesting the the Premier owners might put in a break-even rule or some form of cost control. The consensus is that something needs to be in place but the exact mechanism is still TBD.
I think that might be the better route as there would be stricter enforcement, versus the FIFA clowns.
why is this being rehashed by the bbc and why are arsenal blogs giving it time as if it was a new interview, the bbc story clearly states that its from before the AGM last month – “said Gazidis, speaking before Arsenal’s annual general meeting last month”
I read all things arseblog because…….. Well I just do but this was really tough to get through just because I believe Gazidis to be at most a fucking imbecile and worst , a clueless cunt. Other than that I quite like him and love what he has to say.
UTTER UTTER BOLLOCKS
Is there really a bright future for a company, which sells its most valuable assets (the key players)? I mean Gazidis, you are a businessman, aren’t you?
anyone else sick to death of every bbc article referencing the 7 year wait for a trophy?
Chin up. It’ll soon say 8.
I jest. I fuckin hope…
I struggle to trust this man for some reason…
I hope what he’s saying is true, although I’m sort of sickened by the fact he’s stating we can’t compete at the minute.
Oh well, according to Ivan renewing my season ticket for the next 3 years will help the pot if not my heart.
How much would the sponsors pay for a team fourth in the standings?
Yes going to be a vast difference from what we are getting now but by winning things its gonna payeven more. The del suppose to get around lets say 25 million whereas manure to get 76 million a year from Nike maybe for 10 years is huge evenin they had dropped in Europe league and won nothing last season.
Lesson go and spend available funds in January.
Liverpool signed a 20 million pound kit deal and they finished mid-table. You do the math.
thye spent that 20 mill on Stewart Downing. Fair to say our manager is little more clever than that. He spent out 4 million from the shirt deal on Park- Ju Young 🙂
Sorry, but Ivan Gazidis is either utterly incompetent or totally full of shit. Okay, so in a couple of years, we will experience revenue growth to the point where we can compete for players with the likes of Chelsea and Man City. A competent executive would spend the cash we have on hand for top players NOW, let the revenue catch up to the wage budget in the coming years, and NOT risk losing Champions League football. Ivan’s plan seems to be to ensure short-term profit and gamble on a second-tier squad finishing in fourth place and making it through… Read more »
Selling a future that’s never going to happen, this board have no sporting pride.
They want us to be proud of a balance sheet ffs.
I disagreed with wenger and gazidis for them being mid-table cunts. go ahead and call me a cunt if you want.
Cunt!
sour mouthed, grey haired, badge kissing, hamstring stricken, thigh strained,fergies arse kissing CUNTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So it’s 2015 for us? Pfft
Yeah, it’s lame, especially for the fans AND the careers of our best players. (Wasted, unless they can stick around another three years.)
Chelsea have already shown how to make a mockery of FFP. And city barca et al will just take eufa to court and tie it up for years. FFP has no chance. Also is gazidis going to start paying world class wages to these world class players that we are going to sign ? No I doubt it, the bloke is a complete prick and is taking us for a bunch of mugs.
Always jam tomorrow with this board.
Gazidis spinning a story that he has been spinning since he started. For a group of football fans who pay the highest prices in Europe to hear this man saying in two or three years we will be able to compete is something we really don’t want to hear. We will never compete as long as Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke are at the club – thats the bottom line…
Hahaha new deals in 2005 we were the invicbles now we are the ….&$@”/-(?)!!!
Now with Stan, Ivan and co, we have the Invoiceables.
If you look at the total size of our wage bill relative to that of other clubs, we can/should already compete in paying the ‘big’ wages for the very best players – the problem is how our wage structure is, well, structured to reward everyone similarly, pretty much regardless of their contribution or ability. We are currently hamstrung in renewing our star players contracts or signing the likes of Mata, Hazard et al as the wage structure does not allow ‘super quality talent’ to earn what others in the market are paying. The overall budget is already there, just the… Read more »
I try to point this out all the time, Arsenal can afford ManU type wages. (they can’t afford Chelsea and City type transfer fees)
I hope the club is working to restructure, but they are stuck with existing contracts until they run out.
speaking of which, is bendtner getting any play time at Juve?
Agreed, we may not be able to compete with the ridiculous Torres-type fees but we could actually be very competitive on wages for the likes of Mata, retaining Cole etc if we were paying our deadwood what they’re worth – probably 1/3-1/2 of what they earn currently. It is a vicious circle as not only does it kill us in acquiring and retaining the best players, it also prevents us from moving out people who are just not good enough to be at the club, which would thus freeing up wage budget to change things. The wage bill stays the… Read more »
Bendtner played a few games as his contract stipulates he needs x amount of game time. I saw a bit of them and he was pretty woeful. No goals either. They’ve gone back to Quariarella (sp). FFP just requires income to exceed expenditure. Chelsea just mocked this, with RA converting loans to equity ( so taking dividends presumably) and so converting debt into a 1.4mill profit. I imagine the commercial shirt and stadium rights deals for the title and CL genuine challenger clubs will rise exponentially, as gate receipts can’t really rise much more and still have full stadiums. Gaz… Read more »
All he is doing is protecting his rathe large salary , which comes from the hard working Joe blogs. 2-3 years will brings us nothing. Remember the quotes to justify us moving from Highbury!! We will be able to compete with the bigger clubs once we move to a 60,000 capacity stadium. What ever!!!
Don’t expect FFP to work. The sugar daddy clubs with big debts (to their owner) will merely see that debt turned into shares and handed over to the owner. That one sleight of hand wipes out all the debt with no money changing hands.
FFP will work eventually, but unfortunately for us it will take more than a decade to do it. As Chelsea have demonstrated in their recent accounts, clever people will be paid millions to find holes and will do so. The gaps will be plugged eventually but where will we be then? By then some other bored billionaire can leverage another club. And that’s if a break away league of elite hasn’t formed by then as attendances dwindle as disillusioned fans vote with their feet. Looking at Wengers pre- match today too it struck me that man isn’t getting any younger
The FFP is essentially flawed and if anything, its ultimate premise will be to ensure that the likes of barca, real, yanited, city and chelsea(who are all carrying debt but have overall positive net values) stay at the very top whilst ensuring that clubs which become rich (because of foreign investment) AFTER the FFP kicks into full effect will not be able to throw their newly found money around as quickly and as freely as the likes of city have. You don’t need a economics degree to see that just in the past week, yanited and chelsea have both managed… Read more »
How fuckin depressing is it to read and listen to the same old shit being spouted?
Being in the top 5 financially sound clubs in the world is great. Really tremendous. But it should be a by-product of success on the pitch, not the target in itself, which it appears to be to the cretins on our fuckin board.
Glad I had my first electric oven put in last week, that’s all.
The thing I’m most terrified of is us not making top 4 in the next couple of seasons (quite possibly even this season). Then watch the board shrug as we buy more shit players and sigh, and say, “Arsenal’s just not a big club anymore.” There’ll be no bonus to our transfer budget then. Gah, some days I wish I didn’t love the Arsenal so much. It’s like fancying the pants off of that girl from work, and knowing that she’s still got her douchebag boyfriend (and will never give him up, no matter what she says), but my God… Read more »
So here’s the thing: we’ve made the CL for 15 fuckin years or whatever, and our good players still leave. Are more of them gonna leave? to the point where we can’t field a team? I know it’s unfashionable to say, but our good players a RIGHT to leave. Look at all the crap Cole’s won. And can you blame RVP. I know I’m supposed to hate him and all, but how can you argue he made the wrong choice. Why in hell the best manager on earth is wasting his career at Arsenal is beyond me. I honestly think… Read more »
In some ways it may be a good kick up the arse if that were to happen; but I could just see the club just happy becoming a mid-table club. “Oh, we can’t buy good players any more, we’re happy if we just get this £2m rated player!” “Oh, UEFA League is good enough for us! We’re just happy to compete against the likes of Shamrock Rovers!” “Oh don’t be silly fans, you’re being unrealistic if you think we can afford to have a particularly good replacement for Arsene! We’ve plucked this fellow from Dagenham and Redbridge. I’m sure we’ll… Read more »
Renunciation Process- you renounce something or someone for some reason such as non belief in it, them, or their ideals.
“brighter future” “offering top dollar for talents”. The club got no future at all with this greedy fucktard board..
Interesting that the stadium name remains the Emirates until 2020. The most expensive ticket for a sporting event anywhere in the world. Much chance of that being reviewed by 2014?
this bald cunt and his wig-wearing puppetmaster Stan are the reason we are in decline. Nothing will change for the better while the bloodsucking scumbag Kroenke is in control. Plane crash or coronary in Denver are the only realistic hopes for a brighter future.
Kroenke Out!
Its clearly time to sack this joker and draft in Malcolm Tucker before this club becomes an omnishambles…
Would YOU buy a used car from this man?
Protest protest protest lets all turn up December the 1st black stock road 130pm. We must show this pricks what they are doing is wrong lets get our arsenal back there actions are making our great club a joke. I urge everyone to turn up your voice the more stick this board get. Let’s not go quietly it’s not about not supporting our club it’s more about supporting our club these arseholes are fucking letting us down. We have a wonderful stadium probably a great manager if given the chance but we have the wankiest board lets give gazidas and… Read more »
David. Sadly mate a lot will depend on results between now and then as to what the turnout will be. Fans of all clubs are fickle, win our games between now and the first and a lot will forget. But I agree with you, something needs to be done and arsenal fans need to show this board that we back the team and the manager but the board has to change or go. But if we do fuck all on the first then we will only be asking the same questions a month or so later. At some point arsenal… Read more »
WE ARE THE” INVINCIBLES” YOU GAYS, CANT YOU SEE??.
THE RATE AT WHICH WE LOOSE OUR PLAYERS IS ALARMING, ALMOST LIKE THEY WERE NEVER HERE!!!.THAT’S WHERE THE WORD COMES FROM.
Your name itself is offensive.
Blogs, please take some action.
Lol
In my dream world, we would win the title, resign Cesc Fabregas (don’t say you don’t miss him) and then win the League and Champions League in 2014. Then every major company would want to be our sponsor and we would literally be the richest club in the world, or in the top 4. … I think Gazidis and Wenger should have realized that they need to WIN if they want really huge sponsorship deals. (Thats not always the case, look at Liverpool getting huge deals, but still.) With so much money in the bank right now, spending an extra… Read more »
There’s no doubt that new commercial deals will benefit us. The Emirates move was necessary looking into the long term but left us hamstrung in the short term. That period is nearly over, in theory. But still, we won’t be able to compete with the Man Citys of the league in terms of cash spent because FFP is not going to achieve anything at the top. I have to remain positive though. Maybe the new commercial deals will allow us to spend that little bit more that will make us competitive. I mean, players like Mata were only a little… Read more »
Fuck me then. With this sort of news, maybe we can actually spend some cash so that we can have a strike force to compete with the top 5 in england let alone top in the world.
All the teams above us in the table have better striker options than we do. We have Giroud. and ummm… Giroud. People slate Liverpool for having one striker on the books. We might as well have 1 striker because the rest of them wenger doesnt even have confidence to put them on the teemsheet.
Why Oh Why is Afobe out on loan.
Surely I can’t be the only one who finds it offensive and uncomfortable when Gazides says ‘we’.
He’s been at the club all of two fucking minutes and my first game was 41 years ago! In a few years he’ll be somewhere else talking about we, probably a utility company. Just take your two million a year and keep schtum you fuckin idiot
Is it me or does it seem all we Arsenal fans do is wait? The youth project of diaby,cesc,denilson etc etc generation was meant to destroy the world in a “couple of years” and it never came. Wait for the stadium so we can compete. Wait for the stadium to be paid off so we can compete. Then we have players who we are always waiting to return from injury. Then we’re told to wait another couple of years for these deals to be renegotiated. I sense another false dawn… I refuse to let my hopes get up about this… Read more »
Fucking Agree Completely. We have been fed the same shit 6 years ago and every year after saying in 2-3 years we will be competing. Im afraid in 2-3 years was about 2-3 years ago and we still sell our fucking top players every year. To me, the sale of Alex Song will never be understood. Not fucking one bit. our 2 best players last year, RVP & SONG. Gone. The year before 2 best players, CESC & NASRI, Gone. Top goal scorer this year, Walcott, as good as GONE. How the fuck is this moving forward you dick head… Read more »
haha I know I hear it too from Aus.. so painful I’d gladly switch places and watch the game at the Emirates as opposed to spastic hours of the morning, yelling at my TV and annoying the entire household!
They don’t know how lucky they are 🙁
Ive been fortunate to visit the Emirates twice in the past 5 years. The only way i can think of to spend my savings. Unfortunately, both times i have been, it has been a 0-0 draw. So i am yet to even see my Arsenal score a goal yet…….. But i am hopeful i will one day… perhaps i should come back in 2-3 years time when we are competing with the top 5 in the world. Not as painful for me waking up at those hours anymore, im in Brissie so we dont have day light savings 🙂 the… Read more »
The only game I’ve been to was an emirates cup at the start of the 09’10 season where we played atletico Madrid. It was 0-0 til around the 89th minute then we scored. Then they scored (typical haha) but then we scored again. Even though it meant nothing just being there and even thinking about it now gives me goosebumps lol
Fuk I hope we do those cunts today… It’s 1145pm kickoff so it’s an early one for once hahaha
lets be honest, no matter how much we protest we would be fed the same sh*te.
Gazidis is like a slippery Tory politician promising us things will get better, just hang in there, everything will be alright, FFP is coming, blahdy blah, fecking blah.
The fact is the financial situation has very little to do with the basic defensive mistakes our team is making, lack of passion or fight, and tactical deficencies of Wenger.
Arsene is sadly well past his sell by date, and we have a board that have no idea about football, a disasterous combination.
I am quite confused at the moment. one part of me thinks: ok we have to endure this period without success (maybe 10 years) to make the club stronger, and when we can sign better commercial deals and get the club to move forward etc, it will be happy days. and the other part of me thinks: The powers that be, have let the club down by not spending the money to first of all keep our best players but sign equally good players to go with them. We would have stayed in debt a bit longer but we would… Read more »
the other thing i wanted to say is that we are already in the top 5 Revenues for clubs worldwide (according to Deloitte).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deloitte_Football_Money_League.
Why the fcuk do so many Arsenalfans want our club to go in to debt? I just cant understand this? Do all of you max out all credit cards to live like kings for a short while and dont think it will hit you in the back of your heads