David Sullivan will not be strong-armed into selling his West Ham stake, says football finance expert Kieran Maguire, reacting to events in the last 24 hours.
After presiding over West Ham for 16 years, Sullivan’s time at the club – in terms of his influence over day-to-day affairs via his chairmanship, at least – is coming to an end.
The situation is evolving rapidly, with the Daily Mail relaying today that the Independent Football Regulator – which, as a last resort, has powers to boot owners and directors out of English football clubs – has compelled Sullivan to “share information” with them regarding the “extremely serious” situation.
If Sullivan does sell, who might be interested in acquiring his shares?
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Clearly, Daniel Kretinsky raising his stake in the club is the simplest option. Reportedly, he is actively looking to do exactly that. But as ever with the Czech Sphinx, his means and motives are never entirely clear.
Elsewhere, Vanessa Gold has been attempting to sell a chunk of her stake for several years with no luck.
The last confirmed, credible bid was a £400m-plus proposal made by a group called PAI Capital. That is well, well short of the supposed £800m valuation placed on the club by Karren Brady.
With West Ham now a Championship side, seemingly struggling to attract buyers at their own valuation, facing the prospect of being squeezed by the Independent Regulator and in corporate purgatory, could Sullivan be forced to agree a cut-price deal?
Speaking exclusively to Hammers News, Professor Maguire, a lecturer in football finance at University of Liverpool, said: “West Ham are a Championship football club and have to be viewed as one. There is an expectation that they will return to the Premier League, however, so that will be factored in.
“Sullivan is independently wealthy of West Ham and mainly in property these days, so I don’t think he is under any pressure to sell. I don’t see a liquidation sale price or a sale on the cheap.
“There is an opportunity for Daniel Kretinsky to come in and be seen as the rescuer. Kretinsky is in a good position. He might have rights when he bought his 27 per cent stake.
“But does he have first refusal if Sullivan decides to sell? If you don’t have those rights, you could end up like Alisher Usmanov at Arsenal. He wasn’t able to attend board meetings because of his relationship with Kroenke. Kretinsky, though, has preferred to stay under the radar.
“There is a very, very big upside if he does buy. If he gets control and gets the club back to the Premier League, he will get a big boost. You would expect him to be first in line.
“I would still say I don’t expect Sullivan to sell his shares at cut-price, however.”
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