Kroenke admits it’s ‘hard to relate’ to Arsenal fans’ passion
Arsenal director Josh Kroenke says he finds it “hard to truly relate” to the Gunners supporters’ “passion” for their club.
The Gunners were one of six Premier League clubs to sign up for a breakaway European competition in April 2021 before quickly withdrawing from the process less than 48 hours later.
Thousands of Arsenal fans protested outside the Emirates Stadium before their 1-0 defeat to Everton on April 23.
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Stan Kroenke, who owns the club through his Kroenke Sports and Entertainment business, rejected a bid from Spotify founder Daniel Ek in the aftermath as Arsenal supporters demanded a change of ownership.
And Josh, the son of owner Stan, insists that the support for clubs in England goes “way deeper” than anything he has seen in American sports.
On the collapse of the European Super League, Kroenke 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.”
Kroenke, whose LA Rams side won the Super Bowl on Sunday, added: “I think that whether or not they fully understood the concept of what we’re trying to do, it didn’t matter.
“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.”