West Ham In Trouble?

Raskolnikov

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/football/article43173.ece

WEST HAM have just a month to find a buyer willing to bail them out or face the threat of administration.

The financial crisis at Upton Park is so acute following the collapse of Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s Landsbanki that several members of the club hierarchy believe the Hammers could go to the wall unless a takeover can be engineered.

Although the club is not officially up for sale, brokers Seymour Pierce are in contact with a prospective buyer who is said to be “cash rich” and wants to buy.

City experts value West Ham at around £100million but buyers have also been made aware of Sheffield United’s looming compensation claim of up to £50m.

That has put the Hammers in a Dutch auction — with any potential purchasers simply sitting on their hands and waiting for the price to drop.

West Ham, though, cannot afford a delay. Sources in Reykjavik claim Gudmundsson is under pressure from Iceland’s government to move funds into the country’s ailing economy.

An Upton Park insider said: “Nobody knows what’s going on except that the place is in turmoil.

“The players are now wondering if their wages are guaranteed, boss Gianfranco Zola (left) knows he’s going to have to sell in January and people believe Gudmundsson will have no other choice but to sell the club.

West Ham badly need some Arab investors to drag them out of this.

SantryRed

Would love to see a Premiership team hit the wall.

Might act as a wake up call for more of them.

amacachi

Same here.

Villain

Well seeing as theu shouldn't be there anyway from the Tevez saga, it would be a bit of nice karma if they went into administration and were docked points and got relegated and had to pay Sheff Utd

amacachi

Villain wrote: »

Well seeing as theu shouldn't be there anyway from the Tevez saga, it would be a bit of nice karma if they went into administration and were docked points and got relegated and had to pay Sheff Utd

I still don't see how anyone can blame West Ham for what happened with Sheffield United. There was a big investigation and all and it was the FA who said everything was fine.

Villain

Thats because West Ham lied, they should have been deducted points not fined

Charlie

They FA have a big role in all this mess, for not putting their foot down with Scudamore and the PL. However, West Ham sould be held accountable for lying to the FA on numerous occasions, and for showing a blatant disregard for the rules.

glenjamin

I bet Zola is kicking himself for taking the job now. If the papers are true then there could be a mass exodus from Upton Park this January. Its Leeds all over again.

mike65

They would be a good club to pick up for a song.

Mike

Chardee MacDennis

no real football fan would wish to see any club go under in the majority of circumstances imho. It would be terrible to see a club like West Ham disappear from the game and i really feel for their fans, i hope this gets sorted...

MIN2511

Why do they need Arab investors? What's with everyone and Arab investors?

PL clubs are responsible for their finances and it's about time they tighten their belts and face the music.

amacachi

Sorry, what was your point there?

Everyone knows they got themselves into this mess and Arab investors are probably their best bet to get out of it since their money is in oil which is still going strong, rather than it being some imaginary number of billions of dollars in a computer somewhere which we've seen can be practically wiped off overnight.

bigstar

amacachi wrote: »

Same here.

how could you hope any club goes bust, to me thats petty and a disgrace, would you be so flippant if it was your own club going bust

amacachi

bigstar wrote: »

how could you hope any club goes bust, to me thats petty and a disgrace, would you be so flippant if it was your own club going bust

No, I'd probably cry myself to sleep and start drinking a bit more heavily. Eventually I'd hopefully get a place in rehab and turn my life around.

I'd be pissed off, but if the club took stupid risks then I'd accept it. I don't want to see a specific team go bust, but somethin's gotta give to get the clubs to get their acts together.

estebancambias

Hilarious stuff. It was great crack all together when leeds were all over the shop so it should be good as well here.


Elijah will not be happy.

ghouldaddy07

ugh hate seeing this **** happen to any club.

I have absolutly no love what so ever for west ham and was fairly annoyed when united didnt relegate them but I hate to see a team badly effected by external factors like the global credit crunch or mike ashley.

I think they should be punished for the tevez scandal but so should the FA.

would hate to see shefield united get any compinsation though as the argument of west ham would have got religated over the course of the season is idiotic and at the end of the day they were an awful football team who deserved to go down.

quarryman

estebancambias wrote: »

Hilarious stuff. It was great crack all together when leeds were all over the shop

I'm curious, why was it great 'crack'? Presumably you would be in your element if the Premiership was more like Eircom League with its level of debt?
A strange attitude for someone who supports football to enjoy it when teams collapse.

ghouldaddy07 wrote:

ugh hate seeing this **** happen to any club.

agreed. Any club going to administration weakens the league its in.

The Rooster

I think this story has been exaggerated considerably. The trouble in Iceland has not affected the balance sheet of West Ham one iota, it has not increased the risk of West Ham going bust. It only means that the owner is far more likely to want to sell to get some cash back. There is no comparison I can see to Leeds.

grahamo

Wouldn't like to see the hammers go bust. Great Club with a history of bringing really good players through their youth system. Sheffield United's claims are laughable. They went down over the course of a whole season, not just cos Tevez got a few goals for them.

estebancambias

quarryman wrote: »

I'm curious, why was it great 'crack'? Presumably you would be in your element if the Premiership was more like Eircom League with its level of debt?
A strange attitude for someone who supports football to enjoy it when teams collapse.

No. The same way it was hilarious when Juventus had the betting scandal 2 years back. The transfer frenzy is class with players going to random clubs, and then what happens once they go bust?

ibh

The FA had their chance to punish WH for the Tevez affair but they bottled it and gave them a £5m fine. Sheffield Utd should be going after the FA. WH were hardly going to protest that they got an easy punishment.

What happens if some of the other teams that WH beat with Tevez playing start complaining that they missed out on CL or UEFA cup positionsd because of Tevez??

On topic: It is a sign of the blatant mis-management of the funds behind many PL teams. I would like to see WH stay afloat and coompetitive as they are one of the few teams in England who have tried to be a ball playing, skillful team when possible. The have the right idea in developing a good youth system and have provided some top PL players because of their structures.

pickarooney

estebancambias wrote: »

players going to random clubs

Now that would be funny.

bigstar

i think a lot of you are missing the point that west ham is not its board of directors. there is not a club in the world that is defined by its owners, its defined by the players the coach and more importantly its fans (and i dont mean elijah wood or danny dyer pretending to be fans). west hams owners have acted wrongly not its fans, west hams owners, have only been involved with the club for a few years, not its fans. business and football may be intwined these days but that doesnt mean you should forget what football is all about, and for me its never been about hoping a club has to suffer for things that are not related to performance on the pitch

bohsman

quarryman wrote: »

I'm curious, why was it great 'crack'? Presumably you would be in your element if the Premiership was more like Eircom League with its level of debt?

I wish Bohs were only 800million in debt.

OhNoYouDidn't

bohsman wrote: »

I wish Bohs were only 800million in debt.

exactly, what a bizarre comment.

I assume that as the crunch bites and more and more EPL clubs find themselves on the brink the crowd who have a go at the LoI for being badly run will be as critical of the English game. Its only fair.

bigstar

at least city are still making money, go on fill up your car, we want kaka in january, haha