When Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein walked out of his beloved Arsenal, there were no tears or tantrums. Instead there was a sad recognition that football had lost another link with its past.

Gone are the days when chairmen of football clubs had rather more influence and power than they would care to admit to. But for lifelong Gunners fan Dein, football meant much more than a place on the terraces and a meat pie before the game.

For 50 years, Dein lived and kicked every ball from the Highbury Clock End. But this week he left the club he supported as a boy. He did so because football has suddenly become the plaything of rich American baseball club owners.

At Liverpool, George Gillett and Tom Hicks have taken over at one of the greatest English clubs lock, stock and barrel. With all due respect to our American friends, though, football will always be beyond their understanding.
To the everyday American, free kicks, corners and penalties are just annoying English words designed to slow the game down. Sport in America is all about winners, fast, frenetic action and 15 trays of hamburgers.

However, English football has now been taken over by a whole new breed of businessmen who know little or nothing about the game. It is reported that Stan Kroenke has expressed an interest in a wholesale takeover of Arsenal - shares and all.

Now forgive me for being cynical, but it’s hard to believe that the likes of Kroenke ever grew up with posters of Stanley Matthews or Bobby Charlton on their bedroom wall. By the same token, did Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer ever sit transfixed in front of an English FA Cup Final?

In the old days, football chairmen were pillars of the community and highly respected by the fans. They were instantly recognisable figures who always made the supporters laugh. Jolly and friendly, they were invariably butchers or timber merchants, councillors or comics of long standing.

At Turf Moor, there was Bob Lord who, on a Saturday afternoon was chairmen of Burnley. Lord was also a highly esteemed butcher who took as much as pride in his shoulder of lamb as the Lancashire club.

During the swinging 1960s, Fulham had a chairman who combined show business with football. Tommy Trinder was born to be a music-hall comic but his love of the game was so infectious that when it came to cracking football-related gags, even the fans joined in.

At Anfield, the Moores family were as synonymous with the Liverpool club as the Mersey and the Kop. You also fancied that come 5pm on a Saturday afternoon, they also had a pools coupon by the ready. John Moores and company would become the movers and shakers at the Littlewoods football pools firm.

Now, though, football has become a megabucks industry where only the strong and fittest survive. It is now owned by Americans with large wallets, property developers who know more about living rooms and that porn magazine owner at Birmingham called David Sullivan.

The bottom line is, of course, that English football is moving into a brave new world of high and higher finance. More than ever now, the average football fan has no idea who their chairman is. Modern football chairman would rather mix with City economists than a 60-year-old Rochdale supporter. Roman Abramovich may have to realise that there’s more to life than just money.

A butcher, a comedian or a megabucks American? Who would you prefer as chairman of your football club? Let Sportingo have your views.