Obituary: Danny Fiszman, diamond dealer and director of Arsenal FC

Danny Fiszman made his considerable fortune in diamonds, building the Star Diamonds Group which principally traded in rough diamonds. He lived in London throughout the Blitz, becoming a passionate Arsenal fan.

He joined the board of the football club and bought his first interest in the company in 1991 and was well known at Highbury as a major power broker and administrator of the management of the club. It was 20 years ago that Fiszman had the foresight to consider a new stadium.

Fiszman championed the idea that Arsenal should move from the historic Highbury stadium to a bigger ground where income could be maximised and the club could be better placed to take on its major European rivals.

After much consideration - and many reservations both within the boardroom and amongst fans - Fiszman won the argument and the new Emirates stadium was opened in 2006.

Daniel David Fiszman - always known as Danny and as Diamond Danny to many fans - was the son of Belgian Jewish parents who fled the Nazis shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War.

He was an avid Arsenal fan as a child, standing, when his pocket money would allow, at the Clock End at Highbury.

His father started the diamond business, Star Diamond, in Hatton Garden which traded in all branches of jewellery. Thanks to Danny's shrewd management it expanded into the international markets with outlets in the US, the Soviet Union and Israel.

Fiszman expanded the business further in the early 1960s into such growth markets as property and the burgeoning technology market.

But his passion was Arsenal and in 1991 he bought 10,000 shares which secured him a place on the board. The shares, despite seldom coming on the market, were slowly accumulated by Fiszman over the next decade.

When the financing of football clubs became a major business and their balance sheets needed strong reserves Fiszman realised that not only did the club need larger facilities but Arsenal also needed to expand its income potential to compete on both the field and the transfer market.

The move to the Emirates stadium was protracted - proposals were put to the board that they move to the new Wembley stadium or build near Kings Cross. Eventually they built north of Kings Cross and it was principally thanks to Fiszman's management skills that the stadium opened, in October 2006, on time and on budget.

The new Emirates stadium cost 400 million and has brought the club added prestige and much increased revenue.

Fiszman preferred to be the power behind the Arsenal throne. He was seldom interviewed - all requests were politely turned down - and often avoided even being photographed with the club's stars.

He kept a low profile and his modest manner and enthusiasm for the club won him much respect with the players and the fans

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, with whom Fiszman shared a close friendship, spoke movingly of Fiszman yesterday. "Danny was an Arsenal man through and through. A man of absolute courage and much intelligence who fought the disease with that same resolve he had shown all his life. He was behind all the big decisions at Arsenal and his death is a very sad for the club."

By the time of the move to the Emirates he had sold the Star Diamonds Group for 150m, and in 2007 sold his 20m home in London's upmarket Hampstead. Fiszman became a tax exile and bought a villa at St Prex, on the banks of Lake Geneva.

Fiszman had seen the club's shares pass from a tightly held group of private families to the current majority shareholder, the American businessman Stan Kroenke. He became the largest shareholder days before Fiszman's death.

Asked by the Arsenal fan magazine if he was losing interest in the club by the sale of his shares, he replied vehemently: "That certainly is not the case. Above all, I'm a passionate Arsenal supporter and have been all my life. I attend the majority of our home and away matches and my love for the club has always been, and will continue to be, a matter of the heart."

Fiszman held a commercial pilot license and regularly flew Wenger and other board members to away matches.

He also often flew to collect Arsenal stars such as Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera back to London after they had been playing in international matches.

Fiszman, who died from throat cancer, is survived by his wife, Sally.