West Ham’s owners have confirmed the club’s new chairman structure amid confusion following the sudden departure of Karren Brady.
Before Karren Brady left the Hammers last week, her last act was to oversee the sale of some of the Gold family shares to Daniel Kretinsky.
With Brady gone it was seen as ‘one down, one to go’ in the eyes of disgruntled West Ham fans who have been protesting for the removal of the unpopular vice-chair and majority owner David Sullivan.
It was suggested the move was the first step to Czech billionaire Kretinsky launching a full takeover of West Ham, having initially bought 27 per cent of the club for £150m in November 2021.
West Ham now have three chairmen after Brady’s exit
But Sullivan insisted he is buying more West Ham shares, not selling in the clearest indication yet he is going nowhere anytime soon.
Sullivan and Kretinsky are both reportedly matching one-another’s stake at over 40 per cent each by buying some of the Gold family’s shares.
BREAKING NEWS! 🚨 How do you feel about West Ham appointing Karim Virani?
Virani joins as interim CEO following Karren Brady's exit…
The situation has caused confusion among Hammers fans and the press as to who is now in charge of the club day-to-day and has ultimate control for the key decisions.
Now the West Ham owners have confirmed the new chairman structure after Brady’s sudden exit last week.
The Hammers have appointed Karim Virani as the club’s new chief executive on an initial interim basis in the wake of Brady’s departure.
The club’s statement suggests Virani will take control of the day-to-day running of West Ham – which was Brady’s responsibility previously.
But while Brady was “vice-chair”, Virani is “Chief Executive”.
So who is the club’s new chairman and vice-chairman?
Sullivan, Kretinsky and Gold announced as joint-chairs of West Ham
Well now West Ham have three joint chairmen according to the owners.
In a lengthy statement on the changes at the club, the Hammers hierarchy announced that Sullivan, Kretinsky and Vanessa Gold are the new joint-chairs of West Ham United.
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Previously Sullivan and David Gold were joint-chairs until the latter’s sad passing.
Kretinsky arrived in November 2021 as the club’s second biggest stakeholder with Sullivan majority owner.
But now with Brady’s exit and Sullivan and Gold increasing their stakes, the Irons have three chairmen.
That would appear to suggest Virani will sit under the trio in Brady’s role without the vice-chair title, in the short-term at least.
Last week The Guardian claimed 77-year-old Sullivan has faced “increasing internal opposition on major club decisions in recent times”.
It was also reported that Kretinsky increasing his stake to match Sullivan’s will allow the business magnate to “exert greater influence” according to the report.
Sullivan’s sons, Dave and Jack, have positions of influence on the board and the family have previously confirmed Sullivan wants his offspring to succeed him at West Ham.
Brady was not the only high level executive to leave the London Stadium last week as chief finance officer, Andy Mollett, and executive director Nathan Thompson stepped down too.
Kretinsky is said to want to be heavily involved in identifying recruits for the vacant roles.
But Virani worked at West Ham previously under Sullivan, Gold and Brady, leaving the year before Kretinsky’s arrival.
Encouragingly, though, a popular West Ham staff member has reassured fans over the appointment of Virani in what appeared to be a thinly-veiled dig at Brady.
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