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Wednesday September 23, 2009

Kenyon: Chelsea broke United-Arsenal cartel

ZURICH: Outgoing Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said on Monday that the best achievement of his six years at the club was breaking Manchester United and Arsenal’s grip on the Premier League.

Speaking about Chelsea’s titles in 2005 and 2006 – the London club’s first in 50 years – Kenyon said: “We broke that cartel.”

“We became a respected domestic club, we became a respected European club,” Kenyon told football industry executives at a conference in Switzerland.

“We’re now seen as a very serious European football club. We’ve got a squad that is as good as any, and better than most, in Europe.”

Kenyon, who joined Chelsea in 2003 when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club, regretted that Chelsea had not yet won the Champions League, despite reaching the final in 2008.

But he said the club was on target to fulfil his aim of being an internationally recognized brand within 10 years.

“To do that you have got to ultimately, at some point in that period of time, win a Champions League because that elevates you to one of the very small group of clubs who have ever done that.”

Chelsea announced last week that Kenyon, who previously worked at Man United, will relinquish his role next month.

One of his last official duties was to address the International Football Arena gathering Monday where UEFA-backed proposals for controlling the high spending of Europe’s top clubs was prominent on the agenda.

Kenyon warned football not to turn away wealthy benefactors and praised Chelsea’s Russian owner for backing the club.

“Roman Abramovich’s investment has been fantastic for Chelsea. He’s put money in and he’s committed for the long term for the right reasons,” he said.

“We’ve got no external debt. We’re not leveraged. We’ve got secured ownership with secured financing. We’ve never shied away from the amount of money we have invested in the club “

Kenyon is a member of an influential panel which drew up the “financial fair play” policy, and will stay in UEFA president Michel Platini’s inner circle despite stepping back from his club role.

Platini wants clubs to break even on football-related business if they want to play in the Champions League after 2012, and build up debt only to invest in stadiums, training grounds or developing young players.

Kenyon said Abramovich’s infrastructure spending would “stand Chelsea in good stead for many years to come.”

He also pointed to Chelsea’s trading successes during his six-year stint.

“We’ve doubled turnover, we’ve increased our sponsorship revenues, we sell out now every game,” Kenyon said. — AP

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