STAN KROENKE and Alisher Usmanov have ruled out launching takeover bids for Arsenal, paving the way for a third party - possibly from the Middle East - to buy the club. After a dramatic week in the Arsenal boardroom, the two billionaires distanced themselves from taking over the only British-owned Champions League club.

Arsenal’s third-biggest shareholder, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, was ousted from the board last week. She also left the shareholders’ lockdown agreement that is meant to provide stability to directors’ holdings and she is believed to be willing to listen to offers for her 15.9% stake.

However, Kroenke has told executive supporters that he has “no intention” of increasing his 12.4% stake. Usmanov has told friends he is similarly reluctant to add to his 24% holding, given the economic climate.

Kroenke, who became an Arsenal director in September, met the board nine days ago and had lunch in the Emirates stadium Diamond Club with shareholders en route to visiting his wine business in Italy. The American chatted with supporters about wine, property and football. Sounded out about his long-term intentions, he insisted that he had no plans to add to his stakeholding and half-share of the club’s broadband business.

Usmanov has adopted a more aggressive stance since buying former vice-chairman David Dein’s stake for £75m, 16 months ago and sweeping up smaller tranches of shares but sources say he “does not have the stomach for a takeover at the present time”. The Uzbek oligarch’s businesses have been hit by the credit crunch. It is believed that he will sit on the sidelines and wait for the right price before making a move.

The club is valued at about £750m, including the £250m of debt that would need to be taken on by a prospective buyer. It is understood that during the summer Usmanov tried to sell his stake to the Abu Dhabi investors who took over Manchester City but the Arabs were put off by the complicated nature of Arsenal’s ownership. Nevertheless a Middle East investor is viewed by analysts as the most likely long-term owner of the club.

Bracewell-Smith did not name anybody when she delivered a scathing account of her “appalling” treatment by the board but it is understood that her ire was directed mainly at Danny Fiszman, the influential director who is said by insiders to unofficially “run the club” from his home in Geneva.

Fiszman and Bracewell-Smith had conducted a running war of words for six to eight months. She was annoyed at the absence of any real debate at board level, how much power Fiszman exerted and the hold he had over the septuagenarian Old Etonian directors. Bracewell-Smith also disagreed strongly with the appointment last month of Ivan Gazidis as chief executive (despite being part of the four-member committee involved in interviewing candidates) and felt her voice wasn’t being heard on other corporate matters.

According to sources, Fiszman felt that Bracewell-Smith - who was appointed to the board when agreement was needed to vote through motions to build the stadium - had “served her purpose”.