West Ham's Championship Return: A Fight On and Off the Pitch
West Ham return to the Championship for the first time in 14 years with a squad that looks ready to fight – and a boardroom that looks anything but settled.
On the pitch, there has been clarity. Nuno Espirito Santo has nailed his colours to the mast, committing his future to the club. Captain Jarrod Bowen has done the same. Manor Solomon and Joel Veltman have arrived to add know-how and calm to a dressing room that will need both in a long second-tier slog.
They have taken hits too. Mateus Fernandes has gone to Tottenham, Crysencio Summerville has headed to Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League. Yet the mood in the stands has stayed surprisingly upbeat for a relegated side. Fifty thousand season tickets sold. A fanbase still turning up, still believing.
The same cannot be said for the ownership picture.
Hope on the pitch, turmoil upstairs
Two months on from David Sullivan’s resignation as co-chair, the club’s power structure looks more tangled than ever. Sullivan stepped down after seven women accused him of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour – allegations he categorically denies. He called them “false allegations” and vowed to fight them, but relinquished his role as co-chair and director.
In the immediate aftermath, it looked like West Ham might move into a new, cleaner era. Fellow co-chairs Vanessa Gold and Daniel Kretinsky spoke about protecting the club. The expectation was simple enough: Czech billionaire Kretinsky, already a major investor and owner of Royal Mail, would increase his stake and become the dominant shareholder.
That vision has crumbled into a corporate tug-of-war.
Gold chose a different route, deciding to sell her shares not to Kretinsky but to a consortium led by former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley. Kretinsky then reacted by selling just over 2% of his own holding to countryman Jakub Havrlant, a move that immediately raised questions over the mechanics of any takeover under the club’s existing shareholder agreements.
A united front that never materialised
Back on 13 June, just a week after Sullivan stood down, Gold and Kretinsky had issued a joint statement that sounded like a reset.
“We were deeply concerned by the revelations, and our thoughts go out to those women who have fought so hard to make their voices heard,” it read. “Any abuse of power is abhorrent, and it takes great courage and determination to speak up against it.
“Our focus is now firmly on protecting the future of this football club.”
At that point, the path appeared clear. Kretinsky, who then owned 27%, and Gold, with 25.1%, said they had agreed a deal that would lift Kretinsky to 43% and make him West Ham’s biggest shareholder. Other significant shareholders – Tripp Smith, Daniel Harris and former chairman Terry Brown – were said to be on board.
Then the deal simply… stalled. No completion, no explanation.
On 1 August, Gold confirmed what many had begun to suspect: “the original deal and other alternatives could not be brought to fruition”. Instead, she announced she had agreed to sell her entire shareholding to the Staveley-led consortium.
Kretinsky was dismayed and publicly admitted he was “considering his options”. Within three days, it emerged Havrlant had bought just over 2% of his shares.
Legal knots and unanswered questions
That small shift has big implications. Kretinsky’s sale, like Gold’s, is bound by pre-emption rights – clauses that give existing shareholders first refusal on any shares being sold. Lawyers now argue over whether his move might be seen as an attempt to work around contractual obligations.
Layered on top of that are suggestions – unconfirmed – that the Staveley consortium has also made an offer for Sullivan’s stake. If true, it would drag the club’s largest shareholder directly into the latest battle for control.
For now, Sullivan still holds 38.8%. He may have resigned as co-chair, but he remains the biggest individual power at West Ham. He also remains a lightning rod. He ignored advice from London Stadium officials and appeals from fan groups to stay away from the recent EFL Cup tie against Portsmouth, turning up as usual.
On the pitch that night, West Ham did their bit. A 3-1 win, a crowd of 53,369 and a new record for a first-round EFL Cup attendance, beating the previous mark by more than 18,000. Inside the stadium, it felt like a club ready to move on.
Off the pitch, it feels anything but.
Old scars, new battles
Sullivan has long been a divisive figure among West Ham supporters. Alongside his late business partner and co-chair David Gold, and former vice-chair Baroness Karren Brady, he has never been forgiven in some quarters for the 2016 decision to leave Upton Park for the former Olympic Stadium. For those fans, the London Stadium symbolises broken promises and a club that lost part of its soul.
Brady stepped down as vice-chair on 21 April to focus on other business interests. Her exit, Sullivan’s resignation and the attempted reshaping of the share register should have opened the door to a clean break.
Instead, the club sits in limbo.
The key players – Sullivan, Gold, Kretinsky, Staveley – have all stayed silent on their long-term strategies. No one has laid out a clear vision of what they want West Ham to be, or who they want it to belong to. Theories fill the vacuum: about leverage, about legal positioning, about who really wants control and who simply wants a better price.
The result is predictable: confusion, and a fanbase split not by tactics or transfers, but by corporate manoeuvres most supporters can’t fully see.
“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.”
Championship grind, Premier League-scale drama
So West Ham head to Burnley to start a Championship campaign with Premier League-sized storylines swirling above them. Nuno has a squad that looks competitive, a fanbase that has turned up in huge numbers, and a chance to make an immediate push back to the top flight.
But every result, every setback, every surge up the table will play out against a backdrop of ownership intrigue and legal wrangling.
The team looks ready for the fight. The question is whether those running the club – and those trying to – can stop turning West Ham into a soap opera long enough to let it breathe.
