It appears Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wasn’t joking when he expressed his interest in buying Arsenal Football Club.
The co-founder of the music streaming platform set tongues wagging round the Emirates on Friday when he teased the suggestion of taking over the club from Stan Kroenke.
“As a kid growing up, I’ve cheered for @Arsenal as long as I can remember,” Ek wrote on Twitter. “If KSE (Kroenke Sports and Entertainment) would like to sell Arsenal I’d be happy to throw my hat in the ring.”
Only this past week did Kroenke’s son Josh speak out at a fans’ forum to insist the club was not for sale.
But it seems Ek is genuinely interested in making the takeover a possibility, as The Telegraph reports he is already looking to set up talks with Arsenal’s much-maligned owners.
The report even claims the Swedish billionaire is prepared to make an offer if the Kroenke’s are open to relaxing their stance.
That may well be something they are now considering following the mass fan protests outside the Emirates.
Regardless, Josh Kroenke sounded pretty adamant in Thursday’s Q&A with fans that KSE were not contemplating their position at the club.
“I am not willing to answer that question because we have no intention of selling,” he said. “I believe we are fit to carry on in our position as custodians of Arsenal. We were put in a very difficult position by forces outside of the club.
“We have the same plans for summer that we had several weeks ago and I’m still excited about those.
“So I might be met with mistrust, I might be met with scepticism, but over time I hope to establish some sort of relationship with our supporter groups and show them that we are capable of taking our club forward.”
Thousands of supporters were united in chants of ‘We want Kroenke out’, and even hung an effigy of their owner from a post, accompanied with the message ‘Silence Stan?’, in reference to his lack of communication since the European Super League fallout.
Arsenal is valued at around £2billion, while Ek has a net worth – according to Forbes – of £3.4bn.
COMMENTS