Gunners' new chief to respect traditions
Arsenal’s new chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, may have worked in US soccer for the past 14 years but he grew up on the English game and will not try to make a "Disneyfied version" of the north London club.
“This is an Englishman who grew up with the game, who has a deep understanding of Arsenal football club,” Gazidis, who lived in England from the age of four, said after his appointment was announced yesterday.
“It’s essential if Arsenal is going to be successful that its traditions be respected. This is not going to be an American coming with no understanding of Arsenal looking to make it into a Disneyfied version of Arsenal Football Club.”
Gazidis, who said Arsenal’s self-sustaining business model was key to the club’s future, will be heavily involved on the financial side of any transfer dealings.
Although born in South Africa, Gazidis grew up in England and studied law at Oxford University. He was twice given an Oxford award for playing against Cambridge University at Wembley Stadium in 1984 and 1985.
For six years, he worked in London as a lawyer, living a few hundred yards from Arsenal’s old stadium Highbury.
In 1994 he moved to the United States to help build the brand new Major League Soccer (MLS), which was developed after the 1994 World Cup in the US and in which England midfielder David Beckham now plays for the LA Galaxy.
Gazidis (44) has worked there ever since, rising to his current position as MLS deputy commissioner.
He is expected to get heavily involved in transfers, having been responsible for all signings in the past 13 years in the MLS, where players are contracted centrally.
