CONTRITE Arsenal have reportedly issued personal apologies to Premier League rivals and the squad over the European Super League.
The Gunners, sat ninth in the table, signed up to the doomed plot that would have seen them guaranteed a spot in the competition designed to supersede the existing Champions League.
However, as the concept collapsed on Tuesday night, the club issued an apology to fans.
It read: “It was never our intention to cause such distress, however when the invitation to join the Super League came, while knowing there were no guarantees, we did not want to be left behind to ensure we protected Arsenal and its future.”
A considerable backlash is nevertheless ongoing with Arsenal one of the six Prem teams to have signed up now fearing backfire in the boardroom.
According to the Telegraph, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham held ‘awkward’ phone calls with the other 14 top-flight sides to apologise for the club’s actions.
Furthermore, the Mirror report on Venkatesham apologising to the first-team squad.
The executive was joined by Mikel Arteta on Wednesday to address the players at the club’s training ground and talk through the saga.
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Among the squad members to speak out against the ESL was Hector Bellerin.
The right-back tweeted an Arsene Wenger quote asking that ‘Arsenal lovers take care of the values of the club’.
Despite Arsenal’s retreat, the calls for owner Stan Kroenke to sell up and leave North London continued to escalate.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, previously linked with a takeover, faced pleas from fans to reignite his interest after the ESL debacle.
While club legend Wenger has insisted that the project was doomed from the very beginning.
He told beIN Sports: “I never believed from the start it would happen.
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“It ignored the basic principles on which football is based which is access to sporting competition has to be through sporting merit and by the results of your domestic league.
“Once you ignore that you kill the domestic leagues, and you kill the whole culture of domestic football.
“So that means I didn’t believe for a second that that would ever work. Our fans would never accept that and rightly so.”
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