West Ham's Championship Challenge Amid Boardroom Turmoil
West Ham step into their first Championship season for 14 years with a squad that looks ready for a fight and a fanbase still turning up in huge numbers. Yet above the touchline, the club is locked in a power struggle that feels anything but settled.
On the pitch, the story is simple enough. Nuno Espirito Santo has committed his future. So has captain Jarrod Bowen. Manor Solomon and Joel Veltman have arrived to stiffen the dressing room with top-level experience. Mateus Fernandes has gone to Tottenham, Crysencio Summerville has cashed in with a move to Al Hilal, but the mood among supporters has stayed surprisingly upbeat.
Relegation has not driven them away. Fifty thousand season tickets have been sold. The appetite is still there.
Off the pitch, the picture is far messier.
A club in flux at the top
Two months have passed since David Sullivan resigned as co-chair after seven women accused him of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour. He categorically denies the allegations, but the impact has been seismic.
In the immediate aftermath, the remaining co-chairs, Vanessa Gold and Daniel Kretinsky, tried to steady the ship. They issued a joint statement that condemned abuse of power, praised the courage of the women involved and insisted their focus was "firmly on protecting the future of this football club."
Behind the scenes, the plan looked straightforward. Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire who also owns Royal Mail, would increase his 27% stake to 43%, becoming West Ham’s largest shareholder. Gold, holding 25.1%, would sell down. The other significant shareholders – Tripp Smith, Daniel Harris and former chairman Terry Brown – were said to be on board.
It never happened.
Instead, Gold changed course. On 1 August, having first put her shares up for sale in October 2023, she announced that "the original deal and other alternatives could not be brought to fruition" and confirmed she had agreed to sell her entire stake to a consortium headed by former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley.
That move detonated the fragile peace in the boardroom.
Staveley enters, questions multiply
Kretinsky reacted with open dismay, saying he was "considering his options". Three days later, it emerged that he had sold just over 2% of his holding to fellow Czech investor Jakub Havrlant.
That sale only deepened the confusion. Like Gold’s stake, Kretinsky’s shares are subject to pre-emption rights – existing shareholders get first refusal before any sale can go through. Lawyers are now poring over whether his move could be interpreted as an attempt to navigate around contractual obligations.
At the same time, there have been suggestions that Staveley’s consortium has also made an offer for Sullivan’s stake. That has not been confirmed, but it hangs over every conversation about the club’s future.
The numbers still matter. Despite resigning as co-chair and director on 13 June to fight what he called "false allegations" after a joint BBC Panorama and The Times investigation, Sullivan remains West Ham’s biggest individual shareholder with 38.8%. Gold and Kretinsky’s June statement had implied that would change. It hasn’t.
And Sullivan has not faded into the background. He ignored advice from London Stadium officials and requests from fan groups to stay away from the EFL Cup tie against Portsmouth. West Ham won 3-1 in front of 53,369 – a crowd that smashed the first-round record by more than 18,000 – but his presence underlined how far this saga is from resolution.
Old battles, new season
Sullivan has long been a lightning rod for anger among sections of the support. Along with his late business partner and co-chair David Gold and former vice-chair Baroness Karren Brady, he has never been forgiven by some for the 2016 move from Upton Park to the former Olympic Stadium.
Brady stepped down as vice-chair on 21 April to focus on other business interests. Another familiar figure gone. Another power centre shifted.
Now, instead of the clean break many hoped for, West Ham find themselves tangled in a corporate fight that few fully understand. Ownership percentages, pre-emption clauses, rival bids – all playing out while Nuno tries to build a side capable of bouncing back at the first attempt.
There is no clear narrative for supporters to cling to. There are theories everywhere – about Sullivan’s endgame, about Staveley’s intentions, about Kretinsky’s long-term plan – but none of the key players have laid out a public strategy. Not Sullivan. Not Gold. Not Kretinsky. Not Staveley.
The result is a fanbase caught in the middle, trying to decide who, if anyone, to trust.
"We had a real opportunity this summer to draw a line under what's been a pretty miserable period, get everyone pulling in the same direction and have a proper go at the season," said one long-standing supporter with detailed knowledge of the club. "Instead, we've got another West Ham soap opera playing out in the boardroom. It's like Eastenders."
On Saturday, the team head to Burnley to start life back in the Championship. The football looks ready. The crowd is ready.
The question is whether the people who own West Ham United are anywhere near the same page.
