How Kroenke family may have SAVED Arsenal from Everton-style fate with huge decision five years ago

THE Kroenke family may have inadvertently saved Arsenal from suffering an Everton-style penalty.

Everton were handed a ten-point deduction that has seen them plummet into the relegation zone after being found guilty of breaching Premier League Financial Fair Play rules.

The Toffees recorded heavy financial losses of £124.5million over the past three years. This is £19.5m over the Prem's budget of £105m.

Part of these losses came as a result of Alisher Usmanov, a former shareholder in Arsenal, seeing his assets frozen in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Everton suspended its partnership with Usmanov's holding company USM which had a five-year deal worth more than £12m.

Usmanov held over 30 per cent of shares in the Gunners as of October 2013, before accepting a £550m bid for his shares in Arsenal from Stan Kroenke in 2018.

And it has been suggested by David Ornstein that the North London club could have suffered a similar fate to Everton had things worked out differently.

Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE, he said: "You'll look at clubs like Arsenal for example who had, as a large minority shareholder, Alisher Usmanov at some point.

"Who with Farhad Moshiri moved over to Everton and a lot of the problems Everton are facing are due to the loss of money that was on behalf of Usmanov.

"You could say that might have been Arsenal had things worked out differently and KSE, the Kroenke family hadn't taken full control."

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Amid Ornstein's hypothetical argument, there has never a suggestion that Arsenal have broken FFP rules.

Ornstein continued: "There were so many questions about why aren't you spending more money for so many years.

"And clubs like Arsenal, now Manchester United and even Newcastle under their Saudi ownership are saying 'we can't because of financial fair play rules and profit and sustainability.'

"'We don't want to break them because of the potential consequences', and perhaps now we are seeing why they were so firm on that.

"And maybe their supporters will give back a little bit of credit or reduce their frustration that they expressed at lack of spending because if you're not careful it could be you in this position.

"Ultimately, whatever the politics or agenda around this - and there will be so much conversation and conspiracy theory - the Premier League are clearly trying to get tough and show they can govern properly and create a league that has the trust of the people."