Arsenal chairman Sir Chips Keswick defended the £2.6million payment made to chief executive Ivan Gazidis despite on-field results waning.
Gazidis was made the payment, which included a bonus of £919,000, despite Arsenal's league position slipping from second to fifth place with no Champions League qualification.
Keswick said at Arsenal's Annual General Meeting: 'The club's remuneration committee which is chaired by Lord Harris and of which I am a member, evaluates the performance of our executive directors and senior management team across a very broad spectrum of objectives.
'These objectives include financial targets both in terms of current year performance against budget and revenue growth across a longer time-frame than the results of a single season.