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Usmanov offers Arsenal backing
RUSSIAN oligarch Alisher Usmanov has written to the board of Arsenal Football Club, offering to backstop a £100m rights issue.
Usmanov, Arsenal’s second largest shareholder with 25 per cent, has said he wants to help the club clear its debt and raise a summer transfer kitty.
The club’s board will discuss the letter at a meeting next week and is taking advice from Rothschild on its plans for a rights issue.
Usmanov has made no secret of his desire to tighten his grip on the North London club.