The last 12 months have seen Arsenal endure a series of changes which have completely transformed the complexion of the club as we knew it. From backroom staff to manager, when you step back and look at it in total the scale of what has gone on has been quite something to behold. Arsenal have appointed Vinai Venkatesham as its Managing Director following incumbent CEO Ivan Gazidis’ departure to AC Milan.
Who is Vinai Venkatesham? @JontyC123 takes a lookhttps://t.co/bKzvR3Ut3S
— Arsenal FC News (@ArsenalFC_fl) September 18, 2018
Venkatesham has been an Arsenal employee for over eight years. He was the Chief Commercial Officer of the club earlier, which he executed for more than four years. He was earlier the club’s Sales and Marketing Director and the Director of Global Partnerships and Business Strategy. He also serves as the Non-Executive Director of British Olympic Association.
During his press conference, Venkatesham said:
“From the day I joined Arsenal I have always considered it a privilege to serve this great football club, so it’s an honor to take up the position of managing director and lead the club alongside Raul.”
Gazidis has been criticized for our under-performance from a commercial standpoint. This makes me wonder that Venkatesham can’t escape from some scrutiny either. It was under Vinai’s and Gazidis’ supervision that we had a false partnership deal with the car manufacturer – BYD. However, we have to be optimistic about the future with Venkatesham, the changes we have made have proven effective- Mislintat, Emery, etc with results in recent games.
Arsenal fall victim to embarrassing scam after partnership with BYD Auto was signed off by someone acting as an employee of the Chinese company https://t.co/4N9DCBSm2f
— Mail Sport (@MailSport) July 16, 2018
Venkatesham has also played a significant role in expanding Arsenal’s range of sponsors and is credited with playing a leading role in negotiations for the club’s new kit deal next season, widely expected to see them make the switch from Puma to Adidas in a £60 million kit deal.
Arsenal have agreed a five-year deal with Adidas to become their kit manufacturer from next season, in a deal worth £60m a year, doubling Arsenal’s current £30m a year deal with Puma. [Mail] #afc pic.twitter.com/4Fc5C3AlwP
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) August 8, 2018
Venkatesham concluded:
“We will work tirelessly with the extraordinary staff we have at Arsenal to respect and enhance our unique history, heritage and values; with the overall objective to bring success to our millions of fans all around the world and make them proud of their club.”
With the increase in sponsorship deals and new managing director at the Emirates, the future looks bright. There are glimpses of sunlight in the past 10 cloudy years at North London.
