The announcement of the European Super League caused a lot of unrest between the football fan base and the owners of the clubs, even though most of these clubs withdrew from the supposed super league still most fans want to change at the ownership level of their clubs.
Arsenal fans protest
After the announcement of the super league we have seen a lot of fans protesting and the last Friday just before Arsenal vs Everton at Emirates, we saw a cloud of estimated 3000 Arsenal fans protesting against the owners of Arsenal football club, Kroenke Sport and Entertainment (KSE).
The main aim of that protest was to send a strong message to the owner that they are not wanted by Arsenal fans and to make things worse for the owners, in the midst of this crisis some guy named Daniel Ek tweeted that he would like to put his hat in buying Arsenal.
As a kid growing up, I’ve cheered for @Arsenal as long as I can remember. If KSE would like to sell Arsenal I’d be happy to throw my hat in the ring.
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) April 23, 2021
Who is Daniel Ek?
Daniel Ek is a 38-year-old Swedish billionaire entrepreneur, best known for creating Spotify with Martin Lorentzon.
According to Fox magazine, Mr. Ek is worth 4.5 billion dollars and he is putting together funds to buy Arsenal.
According to the reports Mr. Ek will present and of around 1.8 billion dollars to the owners of Arsenal Football Club, the Kroenke’s family. The bid is expected to be rejected by KSE.
Also, Mr. Ek is an Arsenal fan since he was 8 years old, being 38 now means he started supporting Arsenal in their glory days and grew up idolizing the likes of Henry, Viera, and co.
Who is supporting Daniel Ek’s idea?
Thierry Henry, Patric Vieira, and Dennis Bergkamp. Three of Arsenal’s most famous Invincibles have joined Spotify’s billionaire founder in a £1.8 billion bid to buy the club from Stan Kroenke and have received the backing of supporter groups and high-profile fans.
What is Arsenal worth?
Arsenal, meanwhile, is currently estimated to be worth $2.8billion (£2.02bn), which is a notable increase of 23 percent over the past two years.
So the bid is a little bit low from the real value of the football club.
The KSE response
When Mr. Ek expressed in public his desire to buy Arsenal Football Club forced the current owners to respond and their stand is clear Arsenal is not for sale. Here is KSE’s public statement.
Stan Kroenke Networth
The net worth of the current Arsenal owner is estimated to be around 8.2 billion, which is almost twice as much as Daniel Ek’s net worth.
Also, it is good to mention that Stan Kroenke’s wife, Anne Walton Kroenke is from a family that owns Walmart, and she has an estimated worth of 8.9 billion, she is richer than her husband, as a couple, they are very rich.
How likely is Daniel Ek to buy Arsenal?
For me it is very unlikely that Mr. Ek would buy Arsenal, first the opening offer is below the current value of Arsenal Football Club, I am sure he will come up with a better offer but I do not think it will be enough to make KSE sell.
Second, most part of Ek network is from owning Spotify, it estimated that he owns 9% of the shares, if he had to make a serious offer, he would have to sell most of the shares, I do not think it is a good business strategy on his part.
Third, KSE is known for not selling their asserts, they said they are not going to sell and I think for now that will be unless Mr. Ek offers a ridiculous amount of money to the 3 to 4 billion dollars.
KSE spent around 1 billion dollars to secure Arsenal, I think it will take triple that money for them to consider selling, does Daniel Ek is willing to invest that money? Time will tell.
So what is for Arsenal now?
For now, I think Arsenal will be still under Kroenke ownership for a few more years until they get tired and decide to sell or someone is crazy enough to offer them crazy money for this big underperforming club.
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