By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
In case you were wondering what the hell is going on with West Ham’s ownership situation at the moment, you won’t be alone.
As far as I can see, we have two wealthy groups battling for control of the club, neither of whom appear to be in a position to take full ownership right now.
Daniel Křetínský is worth well in excess of £10 billion, while Amanda Staveley and PCP Capital Partners have equally wealthy backing. In many respects, what we’re witnessing is a battle of the billionaires.
Ordinarily, that would be no bad thing for a football club.
Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t be much worse with the Championship season about to get underway.
Two very different end games
In layman’s terms, I believe Daniel Křetínský wants to control West Ham without crossing the 50% ownership threshold. Doing so would trigger the need to buy David Sullivan’s 38% shareholding at what has long been described as a Premier League valuation.
That’s something he appears reluctant to do.
Instead, the Czech billionaire seems keen to secure effective control with around 49% of the shares.
Amanda Staveley, however, appears to have very different ambitions.
As I suggested earlier this week, PCP Capital Partners don’t appear to be tied to the same constraints.
My belief is that Staveley would ideally like to acquire Vanessa Gold’s shareholding before eventually agreeing a deal for David Sullivan’s stake at a more realistic valuation, giving her consortium full control of West Ham.
Meanwhile, Křetínský’s latest proposal to sell part of his own holding to business associate Jakub Havrlant before acquiring the Gold family’s shares looks very much like an attempt to shut the door on Staveley’s move.
Whether it succeeds remains to be seen.
Kretinsky is looking to block Staveley’s move for control of West Ham
Football must not become secondary
At the moment, PCP Capital Partners look highly motivated to own West Ham.
By contrast, Křetínský’s latest moves give the impression of somebody acting because circumstances have forced his hand rather than because everything is going according to plan.
The club have sought to reassure supporters, with senior sources telling Claret & Hugh directly that none of the boardroom developments will affect preparations for the Championship season or the club’s transfer activity.
Indeed, that message appears to have been backed up by West Ham’s recent pursuit of Arne Engels and Wilson Isidor, despite the ongoing ownership uncertainty.
Even so, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that West Ham have now sold players for well over £160 million while yet to bring anybody through the door.
As I’ve written previously, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to argue that the ownership situation isn’t having some influence on events.
At the moment, we have two parties battling for control of West Ham, plenty of boardroom manoeuvring and very little happening where supporters really want to see it—on the football pitch.
I suspect this saga has a fair way to run.
Staveley took over at Newcastle when Steve Bruce had them. Bottom of the league .
She immediately bought in Eddie Howe who had them in the champions league and Europa league for nearly every season . Numo or Eddie Howe …. That’s not even a competition…
Seems a pretty clear backup plan for DK – original idea to buy some shares and work with Vanessa Gold to have a joint majority has been blown out by her accepting a better offer, which is her right given she’s been wanting to sell for a good while. So DK moves to second option; sells 2% to his Czech mate, buys himself up to 49% and now works with his mate (more known and trusted to him than Gold, assumedly), to have guaranteed majority decision making without being a majority owner. It’s the same plan as before but probably even better and more stable for the club (though a little more expensive for him).
As much as we don’t like to think it, West Ham is a business, and business ownership transactions take time.
Any body for a game of monopoly?
If you’ve already played it that goes on forever.
Perhaps a key factor which has reinforced the wish of these various parties to own us is the incredible fact that 50,000 fans bought season tickets ( up there with the likes of Man U ) for a team that had just been relegated and is in the Championship. They realise how loyal the fans actually are despite everything and above all what we could really become.
It’s like boxers having different titles. I just want someone to come in and unify the club and buy out all the different factions so we’re left with only one owner. I think the only person that could lead us to that is probably Stavely otherwise we’re always going to have this power struggle going on with no clear direction.
At least one positive to take from all this is that there appears to be a genuine battle to own West Ham. Considering we’ve just been relegated, have an unbalanced squad and have sold our best players, that’s quite telling.
Personally, I’d rather spend an extra season in the Championship if it means we finally end up with owners worthy of a Premier League club and a long-term vision. For too long we’ve lurched from one knee-jerk decision to the next, with no clear strategy or direction.
Ideally, I’d love to see an owner with the ambition and resources to one day buy the stadium outright and finally turn it into a proper football arena with a genuine West Ham identity.
The sad reality is the fans don’t get a vote. It would have been fascinating to hear both sides publicly pitch their vision, plans and ambitions for the club. Whoever takes charge needs to take full control, show real leadership and stop the decline. West Ham deserves ambition, stability and a clear long-term plan.
Personally I’m not a fan of Amanda Staveley. She seems to buy up underperforming assets eg Newcastle and gets backers(not much of her own money!) to put cash in to raise performance, achieve some success to increase value and then sell up at a nice profit. The short term success at Newcastle achieves her aim but long term there is a price to pay as they have now sold their best players to satisfy fair play rules and plummeted down the table. I think what her backers want at wWest Ham is to buy the stadium and surrounding land for development opportunities and there interest in the future success of our club is not a long term priority.
Not 49%, but 50%. Personally, to me it looks like the battle, is over since there is nothing the Property Carpetbaggers can do now to stop Kretinsky buying all of Gold’s shares in the two pre-emption rights rounds
Please don’t lose sight of the issue here and it’s not Kretinsky or Staveley it is of course Sullivan who has an agreement with all current shareholders that his shares can only be bought by them at what was an inflated premiership price.
Obviously he has no intention to sell this season until hopefully we return to the prem and then his intention would be to sell to someone like Staveley for what he could get with him hoping that wouldn’t be too far off the inflated agreement he holds with the current shareholders
Kretinsky I believe would be happy to be the major shareholder but without a controlling interest working alongside anyone but Sullivan and I think that’s where Staveley would come in
Spot on mate. Which means this drags on for way longer.
Daniel Kretinsky is presiding over a sh*t show of his own making. He’s nothing like David Sullivan but he sure seems just as capable as doing as much damage to West Ham United in his own way.
Hey Gonzo, it’s actually really interesting to see how this all plays out. Just posted on a Martin article with my thoughts but whether that sees the light of day who knows.
Whilst interesting to watch it is really worrying the impact all this has on the squad, for example the untouchables who perhaps had an agreements with Kretinsky and whether that makes them think again about staying.
I have to say, putting this all to one side I have been unimpressed (as an outside of the camp view) of Nils Koppen.
Fact is the ownership is what it is right now, he’ll have been given instructions from them/the accountants etc in terms of what needs to happen outgoing wise before we can purchase. I would also guess he’s been told if you get £x amount in then you’ve got £y amount to spend.
So putting the ownership to one side the interesting question is whether Nils and Nuno are on the same page with incoming players as right now that seems all over the shop.
I am reallly hoping all this is top secret and deals are close, but once again we’ve left zero time for players to integrate which is very much the WH way.