How Tim Lewis truly felt after stepping down as Arsenal chairman as 'legal action' mooted
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Oliver Walton
Fri 26 September 2025 15:00, UK
Tim Lewis left the Arsenal board last week after five years of being associated with the club and two years as an executive vice-chairman.
It has been all change above Mikel Arteta at Arsenal over the last 12 months, with Edu Gaspar’s exit from his role taking many by surprise last November as Andrea Berta was appointed as Arsenal’s new sporting director earlier this year.
The Gunners are owned by American businessman Stan Kroenke through his company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), and his son, Josh, is also heavily involved in the club’s day-to-day operations.
It was confirmed that executive vice-chair Tim Lewis had departed Arsenal last Friday (19 September) with Kroenke overseeing a major shake-up to his boardroom as Richard Garlick was promoted from managing director to chief executive with immediate effect.
Lewis began advising the American billionaire on matters concerning the Gunners back in 2007, and despite the club’s official line being that he had stepped down from his role, it seems as if that did not paint the full picture of his departure following new developments.
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According to the Daily Mail (25 September), Tim Lewis was actually handed a chance to stay at Arsenal in a non-executive role with less responsibilities and a salary that would eventually be cut from £2million-a- year to £500,000-a-year, an offer which he is said to have declined.
He is thought to have previously had grievances with his £2m salary, feeling he was “underpaid” compared with other executives at top clubs, and so it is unclear whether the Gunners truly thought he was going to accept a new deal that promised to see him earn much less.
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The report also states that those close to the 62-year-old say he is “devastated” with his exit and believes that he was effectively “sacked” by Arsenal’s chiefs out of the blue, and there has even been talk of legal action potentially to be taken against the club.
Football is a cutthroat business, and it should really not have been a massive shock to Lewis that he was effectively been dismissed at the drop of a hat despite the club seemingly being on the right track.
Arsenal appointed Ben Winston as a non-executive director in the immediate aftermath of Lewis’ exit, while KSE’s Kelly Blaha and Otto Maly also joined their board in the same positions, so it is clear that this decision had been planned for a while by Kroenke and his other advisors.
Keith Wyness told Football Insider about the internal relief over Lewis’ exit
Former Everton and Aston Villa CEO Keith Wyness told Football Insider on Wednesday (24 September) that he believed it was a good decision from Arsenal to get rid of Lewis, as a number of those within their boardroom were not fans of the 62-year-old’s way of working.
Wyness said that Lewis “was a divisive figure” and there was “a fair bit of relief” around the Emirates Stadium that he had gone, so it seems as if Kroenke made the right decision despite having to go behind the back of one of his long-time advisors and friends.