Bank of England club

The Bank of England club is a nickname in English association football for a football club which has a strong financial backing. It was used to refer to Arsenal F.C. in the 1930s as well as in recent times for being the last of the Premier League's Big Four clubs to be owned primarily by English investors.

The name "Bank of England club" or "Bank of England team" caught after the record-breaking spending of Arsenal in the 1920s and 1930s. Bernard Joy recalled that people "sneered at the 'Bank of England' methods of team building" after the five-digit figure paid for David Jack. Arsenal continued to spend considerable sums on other players, including Alex James, and, in 1938, broke the English transfer record again with the purchase of Bryn Jones.

Arsenal's new home in Highbury had provided them with considerable resources, such that, in 1935, they became the first club to earn over £100,000 from gate receipts. Accompanied by £2,500 earned from match day programme sales and financial reserves of over £60,000, the "Bank of England club" moniker became regularly used to describe Arsenal. It was also used to refer to the perceived grandeur of Arsenal's surroundings after the 1930s construction of Highbury's Art Deco stands and terrazzo "Marbled Halls".

This lasted until the Second World War, when Arsenal's Highbury stadium was requisitioned as an Air Raid Precautions post and was bombed. The cost of repairing Highbury and gaining no income from being able to play home Wartime League matches eliminated most of Arsenal's cash reserves, which meant that the "Bank of England club" descriptor gradually became less used and redundant.

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