A major UEFA rethink will clear the path for Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to complete a full West Ham takeover.
Speculation has been rife in recent months about a potential takeover at West Ham.
Czech billionaire Kretinsky became West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder behind David Sullivan when he purchased 27 per cent of the club in November 2021.
Kretinsky has repeatedly been linked with an eventual full takeover of West Ham (The Evening Standard).
And there has been speculation for years that Sullivan and the family of David Gold would sell their stakes in the Hammers in 2023 – after the now imminent expiration of an embarrassment clause in the club’s anchor tenancy deal with the LLDC.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire – the author of The Price of Football books and co-presenter of the hugely popular The Price of Football podcasts – recently poured cold water on claims Kretinsky could complete a full takeover in an interview with Hammers News.
But the Czech investor with a net worth of around £4.5bn is making moves behind the scenes to increase his stakeholding in West Ham with a £150m investment deal on the horizon, according to the latest reports.
Now a major UEFA rethink will clear the path for Kretinsky to complete a full West Ham takeover.
One sticking point for a full Kretinsky takeover at West Ham has always been his involvement in the ownership of Czech club Sparta Prague.
It has been the elephant in the room ever since Kretinsky became West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder back in November 2021.
As highlighted by Hammers News previously, should Kretinsky complete a full takeover then West Ham and Sparta Prague would not be allowed to play in the same UEFA competition under his ownership.
Hammers News contacted UEFA for clarification over the multi-club ownership (MCO) situation in the wake of Kretinsky’s arrival at West Ham.
And Europe’s governing body responded by pointing to Article 5 of its constitution which strictly states that ‘no individual or legal entity may have control or influence over more than one club participating in a UEFA club competition’.
UEFA has a set of distinct rules which dictates which club would be banned from Europe and most scenarios do not bode well for West Ham.
UEFA’s criteria is laid out in this Hammers News article and are very much weighted in Sparta’s favour given they would arguably be more likely to have the chance to qualify for the Champions League than West Ham most seasons due to the fiercely competitive nature of the Premier League.
Right now West Ham are facing a battle to stay in the English top flight of course. But should they win the Europa Conference League, for which they are now one of the firm favourites, then the Hammers would automatically qualify for the group stages of next season’s Europa League.
Now UEFA has confirmed they are set for a rethink on MCO which would allow teams owned by same party to compete in competitions.
Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football’s governing body, has said a rethink of the existing rules was needed and that two options — to keep the ban and prohibit clubs with the same owner playing in the same competition, or to allow them to take part — would be explored.
While Kretinsky and West Ham are not named, Ceferin made it clear the rethink comes as there are numerous club owners who want to buy other clubs.
“We are not thinking about Manchester United (takeover) only,” Ceferin said on The Overlap – an interview seen by The Times ahead of its release.
“We’ve had five or six owners of clubs who want to buy another club. We have to see what to do.
“The options are that it stays like that or that we allow them to play in the same competition. I’m not sure yet.
“We have to speak about these regulations and see what to do about it. There is more and more interest in this multi-club ownership. We shouldn’t just say no for the investments for multi-club ownership, but we have to see what kind of rules we set in that case, because the rules have to be strict.”
The MCO rules are in place to help protect the integrity of UEFA competition. Many would argue football has long since lost its integrity of course.
But Ceferin suggested that two clubs with the same owner – in our case West Ham and Sparta Prague – could still compete properly in the same competition.
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