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Arsenal chairman Sir Chips Keswick has enraged shareholders after furious exchanges on the club's finances.

Supporters at the Arsenal Annual General Meeting challenged why majority shareholder Stan Kroenke had been paid a £3million consultancy fee.

That also came on top of questions as to why the Gunners spent just £10m in the transfer market as Petr Cech was their only summer buy despite having vast cash reserves of nearly £200m.

But wealthy banker Keswick, 75, hit back at questions over the payment to US tycoon Kroenke and ridiculed any idea that it was like a backhander allegedly paid to a Sepp Blatter or Michel Platini, who are mired in the corruption saga surrounding football's world governing body, FIFA.

(Image: Getty)

"I'll answer the question, and the answer is that I am not Mr Platini, I am not Mr Blatter, and there is not a written whatever-you-wanted," said Keswick.

US tycoon Kroenke also owns a string of hugely successful American sports teams, and Arsenal insist the £3m is for good advice on how to make the club more profitable and also have stronger business links.

Keswick added: "I don't know how many of you here run your own businesses but those of you who do will know that the best advice you can get is the quick advice from people.

"And this is the point: Other organisations know more about the problem than you do. If you are a humble enough to accept that, then you go and you get good advice. That is precisely what we do at the Arsenal with KSE (Kroenke Sports Enterprises)."

Keswick also annoyed shareholders with his patronising remarks, saying: "That once again" when one asked about the club paying match-day employees the living wage.

He dismissed another fan's question about the club's "embarrassing" Champions League form as "noise", and his clumsy handling of questions about the £3m payment made more of the problem than it actually is.

(Image: Getty Images)

But manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis also defended the club's transfer policy as they did not buy an outfield player this summer.

"We are not scared to spend the money - I know I have that reputation," said Wenger. "We have shown in the last three years if the player has the quality, we spend the money."

Gazidis added: "I make no apologies for having a strong squad and being in a strong financial position. That's always been our aim.

"But that doesn't mean spending for the sake of it. Spending money on players who don't contribute is incredibly damaging. Compromising on quality would be compromising on ambition."

Gazidis was also passionate about the FA's quota plan for youth development and said they would undo the Premier League's hard work on the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) programme.

Gazidis said: "Quotas protect players. We hide heads in sand if we mollycoddle them. There's no evidence quotas work."

MirrorFootball's John Cross has his say

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"Sir Chips Keswick has been poor. The £3m consultancy fee paid to Stan Kroenke’s KSE firm for advice has been made more of an issue by Sir Chips’ awfully patronising response.

"Basically, the argument is that if you want the best advice, then sometimes it’s right to pay for it.

"I think some (not all) would understand that. But the rather patronising response from Sir Chips made the issue worse than it should have done.

"Sir Chips has been patronising at best, insulting at worst."

Who is Sir Chips Keswick?

Keswick - full name John Chippendale Lindley Keswick - replaced Peter Hill-Wood as Arsenal chairman in 2013 but has been on the board since 2005.

While his name suggests he's a character in a previously unknown PG Wodehouse short story, he is actually the former chairman of Hambros Bank and a director of the Bank of England.

Keswick is an old Etonian and is currently a non-executive director of a number of companies including DeBeers Sa, Investec Bank and Persimmon plc.

When appointed, majority shareholder Stan Kroenke said of Arsenal's new chairman: "He has a well-respected track record in business and he will provide further direction and support in our ambition to compete at the top of the game here and in Europe and to win trophies."