Arsenal have revealed they made a pre-tax profit of £36.7million for the year ending May 2008 on the day American businessman Stan Kroenke has accepted an invitation to join the club's board.

The Gunners continue to reap the rewards of their move to the Emirates Stadium with the club having announced that gate and match day revenue totalled £94.6million, which represents some 45 per cent of their overall football revenues.

The club moved to the 60,000-capacity stadium from Highbury in July 2006, and Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood claimed in a statement that it has put the club in a strong position to help manager Arsene Wenger develop the playing side.

He said: "This club is ambitious for success and I believe that the strong financial position which the group has established, as confirmed by the results for the year, provides the best possible platform from which to deliver that success for the long term.

"We are committed to operating the club as a business which is financially self-sustaining and over the last two seasons Emirates Stadium has taken our football revenues to a new level.

"There is no doubt that Emirates Stadium has also become a serious contender for the staging of major non-football events.

"But we cannot be complacent. Accordingly, we recognise the need to further develop the business commercially on a worldwide basis."