Daniel David Fiszman (9 January 1945 – 13 April 2011) was an English diamond dealer, best known as a shareholder in and director of

Arsenal Football Club Arsenal Football Club, commonly referred to as Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, London, England. Arsenal plays in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The club has won 13 league titles (incl ...

, and played a leading role in the club's move from Highbury to Ashburton Grove, now known as Emirates Stadium.

Early life

Fiszman was born in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has forme ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

and was the son of a Belgian Jewish couple who fled the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Career

Fiszman made his fortune in diamonds, building Star Diamonds Group which traded in rough diamonds. Star Diamonds Group also owns 16% of Abbeycrest, whose major clients include

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

and

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

. He sold the group in 2007 for £150M, to concentrate on his role in completing Arsenal's new stadium. Other shareholdings took his total worth to around £236m, ranking him 348th on the 2008 '' Sunday Times'' Rich List (351st in 2007, 273rd in 2006, 305th in 2005 and 207th in 2004).

Arsenal Football Club

Fiszman bought into Arsenal Football Club and became a board member through his purchase of an 8% stake from his friend

David Dein David Barry Dein (b. 7 September 1943) is a British businessman, known for being a former co-owner and vice-chairman of Arsenal Football Club, and former vice-chairman of the Football Association. Dein was vice-chairman of Arsenal between 198 ...

, starting with 10,000 shares in 1991. In March 2007 Fiszman sold a block of 659 shares for over £3.9m to

Stan Kroenke Enos Stanley Kroenke (; born July 29, 1947) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal F.C. of the Premier League and Arsenal W.F.C. of the WSL, the Los ...

Sports Enterprises (KSE). This was a significant sale as reducing his stake to less than 25% resulted in a loss of veto rights over any future changes to the company statutes. Speculation linked this with a move abroad where he would substantially reduce any

Capital Gains Tax A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property. Not all countries impose a c ...

liability that would come with a sale of his stake in the club. Fiszman stated his desire not sell any more of his shares for the foreseeable future, after the sale of 5,000 ordinary shares to Kroenke takes the American's stake in Arsenal Holdings plc to 12,756 Shares (representing 20.5%). On 27 March 2009 Fiszman sold 5,000 ordinary shares of £1 each in Arsenal Holdings plc to KSE, UK, Inc, at a price of £8,500 per share. On 11 April 2011, two days before his death, he sold his Arsenal shares amounting to 16.11% of club's stake to KSE, due to his declining health.

Personal life

Fiszman and his wife Sally lived in St Prex near

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland. His hobbies included running and flying – he was a fully qualified commercial jet pilot. Fiszman had been undergoing treatment for throat cancer at the time of his death. He died on 13 April 2011 aged 66.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiszman, Danny People from Willesden British people of Belgian-Jewish descent English Jews Diamond dealers English expatriates in Switzerland Arsenal F.C. directors and chairmen Deaths from laryngeal cancer 1945 births 2011 deaths 20th-century English businesspeople