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Kroenke Sports Enterprises have no intention of selling Arsenal and will cover the cost of the club’s aborted attempt to join a European Super League, director Josh Kroenke insisted during a stormy meeting with supporters on Thursday.
The Gunners regularly hold Fans’ Forum events with influential groups throughout the season but Kroenke, son of owner Stan, made a rare appearance via Zoom alongside chief executive Vinai Venkatesham.
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Arsenal originally postponed the online gathering on Sunday, hours after news broke that the club were one of six English teams to sign up to a new European competition, but it was rearranged in the last 48 hours as the Super League proposals collapsed.
A significant percentage of supporters have always opposed Kroenke’s ownership ever since he took a majority shareholding in 2011 and the club’s attempts to breakaway have reignited hostility among the fanbase, leading to some speculation the group could look to sell.
However, as quoted by fan representatives in the room, Kroenke quashed those rumours and confirmed his parent company will cover the withdrawal fees arising from their U-turn. Reports suggest these are in the region of £8 million, but Kroenke indicated the figure was lower.
“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,” Kroenke said.
“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.”
REDaction Gooners, an account run by two Arsenal supporters with representation on the call, tweeted Kroenke saying: “We have big plans to invest, we have plans, we want to be great again, but a long-term model does not support long term high investment. No intention of selling.”
In trying to explain their decision to join the 12 breakaway teams, Kroenke claimed they were trying to safeguard the future of the club amid declining revenues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and four consecutive seasons outside the Champions League.
He said: “We are always willing to provide resources for Arsenal football club as we have, we have supported the club for the last several years. I think that the question that you are asking also resides in a much larger question about football — is that if you are always going to be recruiting the next person to pump tens of hundreds of millions into a club, that is not a sustainable operation across Europe anywhere.
“And for us, I think we are not afraid to be aggressive at different points in time. Hopefully you have noticed over the last few transfer windows we have been more aggressive. But that was part of the discussion that we had internally amongst the six clubs in the UK and across Europe. The model that is currently out there is not sustainable over the long term and that should very much worry supporters.
“And so, while it might be that the answer to your question, who is the next wealthy person that wants to come in and just funnel money into the club. But I don’t think that is the right answer for Arsenal football club or football as a whole.”
Venkatesham also claimed Arsenal were not central figures in the Super League formation, despite multiple sources suggesting the Gunners, Manchester United and Liverpool were heavily influential.
“We are really, really sorry for Arsenal’s part in a difficult week for football. Arsenal were not the authors of this proposal, despite what many think,” Venkatesham said. “With this project the train was leaving the station and we made the decision to join. We made a bad decision, a terrible one.”
Peter Hoest, of Arsenal Denmark, told Kroenke: “You say the trust has been broken, but I don’t believe that is true. As fans of Arsenal we have never trusted you. It is really important you engage with fans much more.”
Kroenke responded by saying: “I am well aware we have never really had trust and what teeny bit of hope there was among a small fan group that KSE would take it forward, I know that has been shredded as well. That is why I am here to start to build that bridge. If ever there ever was a plank on the bridge or no planks on the bridge of trust, I am here to start trying to build that bridge.”
A large fan protest using the hashtag #KroenkeOUT is planned outside Emirates Stadium before Friday’s Premier League game against Everton.