Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has said that he plans to buy Arsenal in “3-4 years”. He made this remark in an interview with Bloomberg
“Maybe three to four years…. The issue is that we have more challenging headwinds. I need to get those out the way first and start having tailwinds. Then I’ll focus on this.”
What he plans to do when he buys Arsenal
“It’s not about buying Arsenal and just continuing with business as usual,” he said. “It’s about buying Arsenal and turning it around.“I’ve run a very successful business and I think I can also run a very successful team. Right now, with what we’re facing, over 20billion dollars of projects, I cannot do both.”
This is not the first time Alhaji is saying he wants to buy a club likely worth over $1b. The interesting part of this deal is how he plans to run the club without the help of government. Critics of the billionaire believe most of his success comes from his closeness to the government or regulators. Incidentally Arsenal last won a title when former club executive David Dein was chairman of the FA.