Spotify founder is 'very serious' about buying Arsenal
Table of Contents
 |
Spotify owner and co-founder Daniel Ek has spoken about his plans to buy his boyhood club Arsenal.
Stan Kroenke, 73, has been the outright owner of the Premier League club after Alisher Usmanov accepted his bid in 2018 to buy him out for £550 million.
However, his ownership are coming under increasing pressure from a fanbase whose long-standing frustration turned into protests outside the Emirates Stadium last week following the club's participation in the failed European Super League.
With the protests against Kroenke raging outside the stadium, Swedish billionaire Ek tweeted about his interest in buying the club last Friday.
 |
In response, Kroenke and his director son Josh stated on Tuesday that they had no intention of relinquishing their ownership of the North London side.
In recent days we have noted media speculation regarding a potential takeover bid for Arsenal Football Club.
We remain 100 percent committed to Arsenal and are not selling any stake in the club. We have not received any offer and we will not entertain any offer.
Our ambition for Arsenal remains to compete to win the biggest trophies in the game and our focus remains on improving our competitiveness on the pitch to achieve this.
It has been reported that any potential takeover bid would be in the region of £1.8 billion.
When asked by CNBC whether he believed he could buy Arsenal, Ek insisted he was serious and revealed the finances were in place to make an imminent offer.
I've been an Arsenal fan since I was 8 years old. Arsenal is my team. I live the history, the players, and of course I love the fans.
So as I look at that I just see a tremendous opportunity to set a real vision for the club, to bring it back to its glory. I want to establish trust with the fans and engage the fans again.
So, I'm very serious. I have secured the funds for it and I want to bring what I think is a very compelling offer to the owners and I hope they hear me out.
Ek, who is worth around £3.4 billion, is willing to be patient in what is likely to be a long process.
As I started out saying I've been a fan for 30 years of this club and I certainly didn't expect this would happen overnight and I'm prepared that this could be a long journey.
All I can do is prepare what I think is a very thoughtful offer, bring it to them and hope they hear me out.
I just focus on the club, the fans and I focus on trying to bring the club back to glory and I'm first and foremost a fan.
That's the most important thing for me and I want the club to do better. That's my primary interest.
Ek, 38, co-founded audio streaming service Spotify in 2006 and remains the company's chief executive officer.
It is one of the world's largest music streaming service providers, with over 356 million monthly active users, including 158 million paying subscribers.
Post a Comment