When representatives of the 20 Premier League clubs gather for their monthly shareholders' meeting in London this morning an empty chair at the boardroom table will capture the essence of news that, since it broke yesterday evening, has set the mobile phones of football's powerbrokers buzzing.
David Dein has been a fixture at English football's highest tables for more than two decades, using his position as vice-chairman of Arsenal as a springboard to power and influence. Following his rancorous departure from the Arsenal board, however, one of football's most familiar and influential figures faces an uncertain future.
Dein's departure from Arsenal after a catastrophic fall-out with board members opposed to his plans to attract investment from American tycoon Stan Kroenke marks the low point of a decline almost as dramatic as the rise that took Dein from Shepherds Bush market to the top of English football.
Dein had a role in almost all the major events in the recent history of English football. In 1992, it was he, along with Noel White of Liverpool, who persuaded the FA to back the Premier League breakaway, a move that enriched the leading clubs but fundamentally undermined the FA's power. In 2001, it was Dein who persuaded the then FA chief executive, Adam Crozier, to break with tradition and hire Sven-Goran Eriksson as England's first foreign manager. At Arsenal, meanwhile, he was instrumental in transforming the club from dour winners to the game's great stylists, recruiting the little known Arsene Wenger in 1997.
Recently, though, the sure touch looked to have deserted him. Last summer the Premier League chairmen voted him off the FA board, frustrated at what they saw as his failure to represent their interests above his own.
At Arsenal, too, his misreading of the politics appears to have been disastrous. For some years Dein has struck an isolated figure on the Arsenal board, his position reliant on his role in recruiting Wenger.
He was not keen about leaving Highbury, worried it would reduce investment in the team, but with Danny Fiszman, the man he brought in when he sold him some of his shares, and the managing director, Keith Edelman, expertly handling the move, he was increasingly sidelined. So marked had the division become that Premier League insiders remarked that their board had 21 votes, one each for 19 clubs and two for Arsenal.
Guardian Service
