The battle for the control of Arsenal Football Club took a potentially decisive shift on Monday when one of the club’s shareholders sold a third of his stake to Stan Kroenke, the US sports franchise owner, for £42.5m ($60.8m).

Danny Fiszman, regarded by many observers as the driving force on the board of the English Premier League club, parted with 5,000 shares at a price of £8,500 each, taking Mr Kroenke’s stake from 12.4 per cent to 20.5 per cent.