By ANTONY KASTRINAKIS
FURIOUS Arsenal fans booed and jeered the club’s three most senior board members at an X-rated AGM yesterday.
American billionaire and majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, chairman Peter Hill-Wood and chief executive Ivan Gazidis were all subjected to blistering attacks as they were accused of ‘ruining our club’.
Under-fire Gazidis, the Premier League’s highest-paid chief executive, was forced to defend his whopping £2.15m-a-year salary — £350,000 more than rivals Tottenham paid their chairman Daniel Levy in 2010-11.
And Kroenke had to issue a hurried statement, after angry supporters at the Emirates blasted the club’s policy of selling their best players each summer and the failure to win a trophy for seven years.
Kroenke had failed to give assurances he would not take money out of the club as a dividend, while Gazidis warned fans they may have to wait two MORE years with no silverware.
Kroenke said: “I have one regret with Arsenal, that I did not get involved earlier.
“The reason I am involved in sport is to win. It’s what it’s all about. Our goal is to win trophies.”
Arsenal’s latest accounts — published last month — revealed an annual revenue of £43m, a group profit before tax of nearly £37m and a profit on player sales of £65.5m. That was a 10-fold increase on the previous year.
Gunners manager Arsene Wenger was the only official to escape criticism.
