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LONDON - Arsenal are not about to be sold despite persistent rumours that American billionaire Stan Kroenke is planning a takeover bid, managing director Keith Edelman said on Sunday.
The Arsenal chief also told the club's website (www.arsenal.com) he was confident Arsene Wenger would stay at the club
he has managed for nearly 11 years.
Arsenal have had an uneasy few months after a boardroom row prompted the departure of vice-chairman David Dein, who backed Kroenke, and rumours that Wenger would leave at the end of his contract in 2008.
The rumours intensified after club captain Thierry Henry left for Barcelona last month.
"I think we're quietly confident that Arsene will remain the manager for a few years to come. We're in constant contact with Arsene and we are awaiting his decision. Hopefully he will inform us that he is going to stay," Edelman said.
Edelman said the board believed rich foreign buyers were not necessarily in the club's best interests and would not automatically plough lots of money into it.
"Stan Kroenke is now a 12.2 per cent shareholder and we welcome him as a shareholder to Arsenal Football Club. But really that is the beginning and the end of the story at this juncture," Edelman said.
"You see talk about Arsenal needing a billionaire owner to put more money into the Club but Arsene has always said, and the board also believe, that a football club can only really be run from the revenues that it generates itself over the long term.
"If you look at some of the other clubs with billionaire owners, their debts are mounting up. Anybody who invests in a club, particularly from overseas, who maybe doesn't love the club the way our shareholders do ... will be looking for financial returns."
"If someone is looking for financial returns they will in the long term take more money out of the club than they put in."
Edelman said an exception was Roman Abramovich at Chelsea who had invested significant funds but the Russian's executives have said they are looking to balance their books in the long term.
Arsenal, who won three titles and four FA Cups as well as reaching the 2006 Champions League final under Wenger and Dein, have finished a disappointing fourth for the last two seasons.
Nine English Premier League clubs are now in foreign ownership, although if Arsenal were to be sold, they could just as easily remain in English hands.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone denied on Saturday having talks with Arsenal about a possible takeover -- but said he was always open to offers.
"I don't know too much about that, actually," the billionaire told Reuters at the European Grand Prix when asked about a report in the Mirror newspaper suggesting he could be interested in the Premier League club.
"It's good if somebody is saying that, because maybe I will be approached and maybe it will be cheap," added the 76-year-old, who considered buying into Chelsea before the arrival of Abramovich.
"I'll buy anything if it's cheap enough," he said.
"If somebody offers me something that I think is good value, I'll have a go."
- REUTERS
