The battle for Arsenal could hot up again after David Dein resigned as chairman of Red and White Holdings. The former Arsenal vice-chairman, who left the Emirates Stadium 18 months ago, sold his 14 per cent stake in the club for £75 million to Alisher Usmanov and became the chairman of the Russian billionaire’s bid vehicle, Red and White Holdings.

Usmanov’s stake of just under 25 per cent makes him the club’s largest shareholder, but the Arsenal board does not welcome him and agreed not to sell shares until 2012 to fend him off. Dein was forced out of Arsenal after courting foreign investors, such as Stan Kroenke, from the United States. He is leaving Red and White Holdings to improve relations between Arsenal and Usmanov and could be offered a job by Fifa or Uefa.

“We want the club to stay in its current ownership,” Peter Hill-Wood, the Arsenal chairman, said. “The directors don’t want to sell, but we are a public company. It depends on the price.”