By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has expressed his regrets for not buying Arsenal when his interest lies with owning a football club.
He said he wished he had bought the English side club when the team was valued at around $2 billion.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua in New York, the billionaire business mogul explained that he missed out on buying Arsenal by committing his resources to the refinery project.
He said, “I think that time has passed. The last time when we had this interview, I told you as soon as I finished with the refinery, I was going to try and buy Arsenal.
“But you know everything has gone up, and the club too is doing very well, Arsenal is doing extremely well right now. That time, Arsenal wasn’t doing well.
“I think I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for $4 billion, so to speak and use it as a promotional something.
“But what I will do is to continually be the biggest fan of Arsenal. I watch their games anytime they are playing. So, I will remain a major supporter of Arsenal, but I don’t think it makes sense today to buy Arsenal.’
When asked if he regretted not buying when Arsenal’s value was lower, he said, “Actually, I regret not buying it before but you know my money was more needed in completing my project (Dangote refinery) than buying Arsenal. I would have bought the club for $2 billion, but you know I wouldn’t have been able to finish my project. So, It was either I finish my project or go and buy Arsenal.”
Dangote had, in 2020, made known his intention to go for the North London club after his refinery project.
The richest man in Africa, who has now rested his ambition to take over at Emirates Stadium, founded the Dangote Group — the largest conglomerate in West Africa — in 1981
[With report by The Punch]