Hundreds of Arsenal supporters chanted Friday for owner Stan Kroenke to sell the club and board members to be fired for agreeing to join the breakaway European Super League.
Fans lit flares, held up signs, and joined in chorus outside Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium hours before kickoff against Everton to protest Kroenke, who agreed earlier this week to join the controversial Super League. The closed-circuit competition was widely panned as a money-grab by the sport’s richest teams.
Arsenal officially withdrew from the project Tuesday after significant backlash from supporters, former players, pundits, and politicians. The club – one of six Premier League teams to agree to the proposal – said it “made a mistake” and apologized.
But a fan base that previously called for Kroenke to sell his stake in the club again demanded his removal in vociferous demonstrations:
#AFC pic.twitter.com/uiZkOfHuPX
— Amy Lawrence (@amylawrence71) April 23, 2021
“Get out of our club,” one group of fans chanted.
Amazing scenes here at Emirates Stadium as Arsenal fans continue their protest against KSE #KroenkeOut pic.twitter.com/I1e2diPWKs
— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley_) April 23, 2021
“We want our Arsenal back,” another contingent sang.
Big turnout already at the Emirates as fans protest against Arsenal’s Kroenke owners pic.twitter.com/awbMKn0bhX
— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) April 23, 2021
Many fans carried signs – most containing strong language against the American businessman.
“Kroenke KE-19, The American Virus,” read one.
“Merit, not money: Say no to the Super League,” read another.
Selection of signs and banners from the Arsenal protest. pic.twitter.com/yJLr9forLM
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) April 23, 2021
Kroenke’s son, Josh, reiterated during a fan forum Thursday that the club “got it wrong.” The 40-year-old, who also serves on Arsenal’s board of directors, told supporters his father’s conglomerate has no intention of selling the club.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment took over the Gunners in 2011.
Barcelona plan to offer Lionel Messi a new two-year contract with an option for third, sources told ESPN’s Sam Marsden and Moises Llorens.
The La Liga giants are reportedly unable to pay Messi his current annual salary – believed to be around €75 million after taxes – in a new deal. With Barcelona facing debts totaling more than €1 billion, club president Joan Laporta is reportedly hoping to sweeten the deal by signing a star player like Erling Haaland or Neymar this summer.
Messi would rather renew his contract on a yearly basis, according to Marsden and Llorens.
Laporta said this week he’s “convinced” Messi wants to remain at the club, vowing to do everything in his power to keep the 33-year-old from leaving at the end of his contract in June.
Messi has said he’ll consider his future after the conclusion of the 2020-21 season. Barcelona can win the La Liga title if they win their final seven matches of the season.
Barca manager Ronald Koeman has been optimistic about Messi staying put.
“Leo has seen for quite some time that the team is improving thanks to all the changes we’ve made,” Koeman said after Barcelona bowed out of the Champions League in March.
“Particularly, we have young players of great quality. We’ve got a great future ahead. Leo can’t have any doubts about what the future holds for this team.”
Barcelona have since won the Copa del Rey title – the club’s first silverware since 2019.
Messi attempted to engineer his exit last summer, citing the lack of a project. But several academy graduates and youngsters have earned opportunities under Koeman, including Pedri and Oscar Mingueza, who scored in El Clasico in April.
Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan criticized UEFA on Thursday for adding more games to the Champions League calendar without “thinking about” players.
Gundogan said the new format – set to take effect in 2024 and include a minimum of 10 games per team in the group stage – isn’t much better than the controversial European Super League.
Gundogan’s City withdrew from the Super League project – a 20-team competition that promised to give 15 clubs a permanent spot – after intense backlash from fans, pundits, and players Tuesday. Some of Gundogan’s teammates, including Raheem Sterling, celebrated the club’s decision.
“With all the Super League stuff going on … can we please speak about the new Champions League format?” Gundogan wrote on Twitter. “More and more and more games. Is no one thinking about us players? The new UCL format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League …
“The UCL format right now works great and that is why it’s the most popular club competition in the world – for us players and for the fans.”
Earlier this week, City manager Pep Guardiola blasted UEFA for looking after its own interests and denying teams recovery time between seasons.
“Do they listen when the managers and the footballers say when they want to finish the season and have two weeks, three weeks off?” he said. “And after, start again, start again. There are many injuries. What is the problem with injuries? Absolutely nothing. Another player, don’t play this one, play the other one. The show must go on.”
City, who are still active in three competitions, will play a minimum of 60 games this season.
The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) and the U.K. government are overseeing an extensive review of football in England and Wales designed to put fans at the center of the sport’s governance.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur were set to join the European Super League until they bowed to fan pressure and backed out on Tuesday, triggering the competition’s collapse after only two days.
That particular threat to the domestic game is over, but Tracey Crouch – a Conservative MP for a constituency in southern England and the former sports minister – will still lead the government’s supporter-led review of the nation’s sport.
“What the last few days have highlighted is that football in this country does need a complete overhaul,” Ashley Brown, head of supporter engagement and governance at the FSA, told theScore on Wednesday.
“Crazy decisions such as the European Super League (shouldn’t) even get talked about, let alone see the light of day,” he added.
PAUL ELLIS / AFP / Getty
Brown doesn’t know yet if the government’s review will be a definitive partnership with the FSA.
However, he confirms government representatives contacted the representative body for fans in England and Wales before and after it announced its own investigation. He also hopes the Conservatives’ inquiry will lead to “wider support and recognition from the government” for the FSA, which relies on sponsors and football-focused charities to operate.
Crouch “will do a root and branch investigation into the governance of football and what we can do to promote the role of fans in that governance,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, according to The Guardian’s Peter Walker and Haroon Siddique.
The FSA’s review, with or without government assistance, intends to look into every aspect of how football is run.
Brown says Germany’s 50+1 rule – which ensures club members hold a majority of voting rights – is ideal as an ownership model, but he appreciates it would be difficult to force into the longstanding structures of English football. Instead, a more realistic aim would be to form an independent regulatory body to oversee the sport’s governance, and also to introduce a different class of shares at clubs, giving fans an opportunity to approve and veto key decisions.
And after the Super League movement underlined the big clubs’ preoccupation with money in their decision-making, it’s clear an extensive look into football’s vast financial chasm is required.
“Why is all this money passing through the clubs into the hands of a few people?” Brown said. “So, of course, we’ve got to talk about player salaries as well, we’ve got to talk about parachute payments, all these topics which have had a detrimental impact on the game need to be addressed as a whole. So, it’s a holistic review that we very much require.”
The use of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) was already under review before the Super League plot arose. The FSA has conducted a huge survey into the popularity of VAR, Brown says, and the Premier League is taking a keen interest in the results.
Clive Brunskill / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Brown isn’t able to divulge the outcome of the survey until it’s publicized in the coming days, but he did offer an ironic response when pressed on the FSA’s findings.
“I don’t think anyone would be surprised about how popular VAR is with the fans,” he said.
The FSA’s ambitions aren’t restricted to its own shores. The group is also assisting umbrella organization Football Supporters Europe, the pan-European body that represents football supporters across the continent, in its efforts to shake up UEFA’s operations.
The groups are dismayed at UEFA’s weak anti-racism stance and the reformatting of its competitions that, Brown explains, put “more pressure, particularly in this country, on some of our other historic competitions and their continued existence.”
The FSA and other representative bodies of fans across Europe are determined that the fallout following the Super League’s collapse isn’t over, and the rebuild is just beginning.
