Dangote waits on refinery for Arsenal move

Billionaire industrialist, Aliko Dangote is still keen on his hope of buying over English football team, Arsenal, and believes he will have enough resources and time to do it when the refinery he is putting up in Ondo State is up and running.

Dangote told BBC that the Gunners needs new ownership and direction if they are to progress in the Premier League, adding that he ‘already knew’ his strategy to take them forward.

Dangote, 58, is Africa’s richest man according to Forbes, and is worth a reported $15.7bn which puts him 67th on the list of the world’s richest people.

The businessman was linked with an approach to buy a stake in the club in 2010, before he pulled out, but now believes that the building of an oil refinery in Nigeria will give him the funds to return with a new offer.

Dangote is worth more than the two majority owners Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov.

Kroenke is the Gunners’ majority shareholder with 66.64 percent of the club’s parent company Arsenal Holdings plc, while Russian Usmanov owns 29.11 percent. The remainder shares are held by minority shareholders.

“When we get this refinery on track, I will have enough time and enough resources to pay what they are asking for,” he told BBC Hausa.

“There were a couple of us who were rushing to buy (in 2011), and we thought with the prices then, the people who were interested in selling were trying to go for a kill,” Dangote added.

“We backtracked, because we were very busy doing other things, especially our industrialisation.”

The Gunners have a history of selling star players like Robin van Persie (£25m to Man Utd in 2012) and Cesc Fabregas (to Barcelona in 2011 for £35m), while they also moved on Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri to title rivals Man City for over £50m in recent years.

“They are doing well, but they need another strategic direction,” Dangote said. “They need more direction than the current situation, where they just develop players and sell them.”

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