Staveley Consortium Acquires 25.1% Stake in West Ham

West Ham’s search for a route back to the Premier League has taken a sharp turn off the pitch, with Amanda Staveley moving into view as a potential powerbroker in east London.

A consortium fronted by Staveley, alongside Mehrdad Ghodoussi and PCP Capital Partners, has agreed a deal to buy the Gold family’s 25.1% stake in the club. The shares belong to the family trust of former joint-chair David Gold, who died in 2023, and are being sold by his daughter, Vanessa Gold.

The agreement is significant. A quarter of the club, now back in the Championship just two seasons after lifting the Europa Conference League in 2023, is about to change hands – if existing shareholders allow it.

Under an ongoing pre-emption process, West Ham’s current shareholders have the right to step in and buy the Gold stake themselves. Only if they decline will the Staveley consortium move into the ownership structure. For now, the deal is agreed but not yet over the line.

Vanessa Gold set out her position in a detailed statement, framing the decision as the end of a personal and emotional chapter.

She described the “great honour” of stepping into a joint-chair and director role after her father’s passing, recalling how David Gold’s connection with the club ran from youth team player to fan to owner, always, in her words, with the aim “to champion and protect this great club”. She said she had taken “huge personal pride” in continuing that legacy over the past three years and expressed gratitude to staff, players and supporters.

The path to this point has not been straightforward. Gold revealed that on 12 June she had agreed a sale with fellow shareholder Daniel Kretínsky that would have made his EP Group the single largest shareholder at West Ham. That agreement collapsed, as did other alternatives explored in recent months.

With those options exhausted, she has turned to Staveley’s group. Gold stressed that the sale to the PCP-led consortium is still subject to the pre-emption process but said she wanted to be transparent with fans about “where things stand and my intentions”.

Her stated ambition throughout has been to secure “the right leadership and ownership” to help West Ham “achieve its potential and return to its rightful place in the Premier League”. She backed Staveley, Ghodoussi and PCP Capital Partners to provide “deep experience and understanding of what it takes to lead a successful football club” and voiced “every confidence” in what they can bring. Until the process concludes, she pledged to continue acting in the club’s best interests, as she said her father had done.

Staveley’s arrival on the scene will not go unnoticed across English football. She brokered the Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle from Mike Ashley in October 2021, then, alongside Ghodoussi, helped oversee the club’s transformation from relegation candidates to Champions League participants. Newcastle’s rise continued beyond their departure in the summer of 2024, with the club going on to lift the Carabao Cup.

Now that same group is poised to take a sizeable foothold at West Ham, a club wrestling with the reality of Championship football and the expectation of a swift return to the top flight. The numbers are clear: 25.1% of the club is in play. What remains unclear is whether the existing shareholders will open the door to Staveley’s consortium – or keep that power within the current boardroom.