Arsenal owner Josh Kroenke has admitted that the passion from fans involved in European football outweighs that of what they are used to in the USA.
The Kroenke family took control of the Gunners in 2018, but they have struggled to get the fans completely on board as of yet.
Josh has now admitted that it is difficult to understand the level of passion involved in the sport.
He told Road Trippin’: ‘I think that one of the messages that I said to our supporters and I do listen to our supporters over there, I listen to our fans here [in America] with our teams but the level of passion that is involved in European football, and support that goes into these clubs – I don’t wanna say it’s deeper than anything we have over here – but it’s way deeper than anything we have over here.
‘It’s hard to truly relate as an American or a foreigner heading into the UK the passion that really goes on from the people that support these clubs.’
They suffered a huge backlash from the fanbase when they were confirmed as having signed up to a breakaway competition in the European Super League, and he claims that they immediately learned that they would have to withdraw from the competition despite not wanting to.
‘I think that whether or not they fully understood the concept of what we’re trying to do, it didn’t matter,’ said Kroenke.
‘They didn’t want the change. That was the only thing that mattered that we were going to make changes to the system they love. I understood that.
‘I think part of being a good leader is making unpopular decisions on behalf of the group and part of being a good leader is listening to the group and understanding when to back off.
‘That’s what we did. Once we had a full understanding of what was going on – very quickly – the right thing to do as a leader was to get out of the process.’
Kroenke seems to believe that there is something about the ESL that we didn’t understand, but I think he’s a little naive to believe that we don’t understand all the ins and outs of why they wanted this breakaway, with UEFA’s control over the current competitions an issue amongst a number of owners.
The fact remains that we don’t want to join a hierarchy that restricts who will and won’t be able to enter, and we want not only us to earn our place in the elite competitions, but others to have a fair shot at earning a place also.
Do you think the European Super League could make a return in the near future?
Patrick
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