Board room minnow may hold the power in West Ham’s shareholder strife – Report

The silence that has descended over West Hams boardroom following the Kretinsky / Gold statement of two weeks ago hasn’t prevented speculation over the ownership of the club: Far from it. The Amanda Staveley stories have flowed and suggestions have been rife over her company seeking to acquire David Sullivan’s shares but requiring boardroom parity with Daniel Kretinsky.

The boardroom minnows- the tiny minority shareholders – could have a huge say in West Ham’s future direction. That’s the claim from Kieran Maguire, football finance expert, quoted widely in yesterday’s hitc.com:

“Daniel Kretinsky pact with multiple investors mooted as West Ham takeover saga evolves”:

“Professor Maguire, who lectures in football finance at University of Liverpool, says that one option available to Kretinsky is to rope in Albert ‘Tripp’ Smith, who owns about eight per cent of the club, in order to establish a voting majority.

“Initially, Kretinsky wanted to become joint-senior owner alongside David Sullivan. But given that Sullivan’s focus is elsewhere, this is an opportunity from which Kretinsky will take advantage.

“In terms of his power, a lot will depend on whether he can get some form of pact with fellow shareholders, perhaps getting the likes of Albert Tripp Smith to vote in alignment with him at all times. That way, he would effectively have more than 50 per cent control, which would allow him to dictate the operations of the club.”

Whether Staveley has any involvement in the club going forward (dubious) Kretinsky’s alliance with Tripp and Gold will be crucial if the board are still saddled with a ‘hostile’ David Sullivan who holds 37% of the clubs shares and may still resist Kretinsky’s behind the scenes power grab.

With 30th June seen by many as a deadline for the club to re-arrange its shares and carry out a rights issue, it seems that concrete news of the club’s ownership shift might be just around the corner.