Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is confident the current board will stand firm over any foreign takeover interest.

The shareholding directors made an undertaking last April not to sell any of their shares for at least a year and Hill-Wood insisted today that one of those directors, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who owns a 15.8% stake in the club, will not be looking to sell up.

"I can only tell you what she has told me - that she has no intention of selling her stake, and that she is in it for the long term," Hill-Wood said.