West Ham never stood a chance with Kroupi loophole
Last night’s transfer of West Ham target Eli Junior Kroupi to Bournemouth for a fee of £10m raised some eyebrows, especially considering the Hammers had reportedly offered £15m plus an additional £20m in potential add-ons.
Kroupi was immediately loaned back to FC Lorient for the remainder of the season. A senior source at West Ham told Claret & Hugh earlier today: “It’s a game clubs play, with the clubs they own.”
In November 2024, Premier League clubs voted against a temporary ban on “related party loans” between clubs under the same ownership. Bill Foley, the owner of Bournemouth and Black Knight Group, acquired a significant stake in Lorient one month after taking over the Cherries in a deal allegedly worth around £120m.
A number of Premier League clubs are part of a multi-club ownership model. Examples include Manchester City, who are one of 13 clubs under the control of City Football Group. Crystal Palace are one of five clubs—including French club Lyon—owned by Eagle Football Holdings, while Chelsea’s owners took a majority stake in Strasbourg last year.
Transfer Loophole: They’re all at it
Other clubs include Nottingham Forest, whose owner Evangelos Marinakis also owns Greek giants Olympiacos; Leicester City (King Power Group), who own OH Leuven; Brighton owner Tony Bloom, who owns Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise; and West Ham’s Daniel Kretinsky, co-owner of Sparta Prague.
As this ownership structure grows in popularity, concerns are mounting about the potential for an unfair advantage in player trading.
According to the UEFA 2023 Europe Club Finance & Investment Landscape Report, Red Bull and City Football Group are the largest groups, with over 230 clubs now multi-owned.
The UEFA regulations are very clear that clubs with the same ownership competing in the same European competition are not allowed to engage in transfer dealings. This rule prevented Manchester United from concluding a deal for Jean-Clair Todibo, who was playing for Nice (a club owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, part-owner of Manchester United).
Oddly, Manchester City managed to secure a deal from sister club Girona regarding the player Savio, as they finalised this before the rules came into force.
UEFA are exploring whether to prohibit clubs under the same ownership group from doing any business. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin admitted in 2024 that the growing concept of multi-club ownership needed greater thought.
For 2024-2025, UEFA provided a temporary alternative to the ruling, which prevented clubs with the same owners or directors from competing in the same European competition.
Closer to home, the Owners’ and Directors’ Test prohibits a person from exercising control over the management of more than one English club.
Interestingly, West Ham are yet to engage in player trading, and no transfer business has taken place between Sparta Prague and West Ham. Sparta’s top players, including Veljko Birmancevic, Lukas Haraslin, and Peter Vindahl Jensen, have attracted interest from Europe’s top clubs.
Matt it’s also worth mentioning the separate affiliate partnership which West Ham discussed with Austrian club Klagenfurt in 2023. This allowed Andy Irving to be loaned back to Klagenfurt following his transfer to West Ham for £1.6 million. The model also allows young players to be sent on loan where they can gain first team opportunities.
Brighton have a similar partnership with Union SG who they sent Kaoru Mitoma on loan to before he rejoined Brighton and just had a £54 million bid rejected.
Kretinsky hasn’t done us any favours with Prague, why aren’t our kids training with them and supplementing their first team ? Why with players like Hlozek aren’t we getting favourable deals ?
Teamtalk and 90 minutes reported in May 2022 that Kretinsky had personally proposed a loan deal for Adam Hlozek to West Ham. But Moyes and his Head of Recruitment Rob Newman wanted to look at other options! Liverpool, Juve and Bayern Munich were all reported to be linked with him. He also played alongside Soucek and Coufal for the national team who both recommended him to Moyes.
He played for Sparta until 2022 and transferred to Leverkusen where he stayed for 2 years before moving to TSG Hoffenheim. It seems we never learn.
No dithering David Moyes didn’t learn as to turning down Ivan Toney Ollie Watkins Alvarez the one who went to city and gykores, and it seems he still hasn’t bought a midfielder when they need a striker ring any bells
Excellent article Matt and certainly a hot topic. Can’t help feeling that the club should have known about the sister club relationship between Lorient and Bournemouth, as Bill Foley and the Black Knight Group purchased the 33% share in Lorient back in January 2023, a month after he brought Bournemouth. He also has a stake in Hibernian and owns Auckland FC in New Zealand.
Bournemouth and Lorient have dealt with each other, including the €20 million move for winger Dango Ouattara in 2023, and Romain Fevre last summer who is currently on loan at Stacey’s Brestois. The purchase and immediate loan back for Kroupi to Lorient will help in their bid to gain promotion to Lique 1 after being relegated last year. Lorient are currently top of Lique 2. With this background I am surprised the West Ham bid was made.
You raise a good point about Daniel Kretinsky not yet using the same transfer opportunities with his ownership of Sparta Prague after his £180 million investment 27% stake in West Ham. Particularly when their 3 top players have attracted interest from Europe’s top clubs, and Sparta are competing in the Champions League.
Why were Manchester United barred from signing Todibo because of Jim Ratcliffs part ownership of both MU and Monaco but this not an issue for the owner of L’Orient and Bournemouth. Also in terms of PSR and taxation is there not a case of a player being sold at undervalue?
Man u and nice not Monaco are both in the same European competition which eufa bans any transfers between sister clubs playing in the same European competition
All manner of shenanigans go on. Chelsea recently sold two hotels and the womens team to themselves in order to circumvent PSR.
It’s all very difficult to legislate against. As for Kretinsky his investment is tuppence ha’penny compared with his other investments so accordingly he takes little personal interest, it’s all representatives on the board.