Aliko Dangote, the chairman of the Dangote Group, has expressed remorse for not having acquired Arsenal for $2 billion in the past.
The “time has passed” for Dangote to purchase the Premier League team, he claimed.
On Monday in New York, he had a conversation with Francine Lacqua of Bloomberg.
That time, in my opinion, has passed. When we last spoke during our interview, I did say that I would try to purchase Arsenal as soon as I was done with the refinery.
The trouble is that prices have increased for everything. Every club is operating profitably. Arsenal is now playing quite well. They weren’t performing well at the time [when I wanted to buy].
“I don’t think I have enough extra money to go buy a club for $4 billion and exploit it for marketing purposes.
“I would prefer to use the money for something. What I’ll do is keep being the biggest Arsenal fan. Every time, I watch their games. Although I still think buying Arsenal makes sense, I will always be a huge fan of the team.
“To be honest, I wish I had purchased Arsenal sooner, but as you can see, I needed the money more to finish my project. “I would have paid $2 billion for it,” he declared.