Today's Football Economics
Submitted by
BillyIdle on Thu, 11/19/2009 at 8:51am.
Former Birmingham City owner David Sullivan can take his pick of several prominent football clubs to buy, including West Ham United.
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David Sullivan: Buying back into football?
The 60-year-old entrepreneur is in the market to move back into football after selling his stake in the Blues. With so many clubs urgently seeking new investment, he has been inundated with offers.
Sullivan told ESPN Soccernet: "I have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of clubs, so I am not in a position to comment about any club I might wish to buy."
West Ham remains the club he would most like to purchase, but there are major problems over the Hammers' increasing level of debt (which ESPN Soccernet revealed could be as high as £85 million).
One insider suggested that the asking price had to drop to £100 million and also include the debt in order to interest any potential investor. That would effectively mean just £15 million would be enough to buy West Ham, providing the new owner took on the debt mountain. Sullivan, according to reports, offered to take on 50% for free, with a proviso to pump in much-needed funds to rescue the club. Sullivan desperately wants to save the club he supported as a boy and he has informed Icelandic owners Straumur he is willing to invest £40 million to rebuild the club if given control.
West Ham's debts are currently described as "frightening". Sullivan wants Straumur to maintain the debts in their 50% interset in the club, leaving him free of debt to use his investment to buy new players and avoid a potential fire sale of the few remaining big assets in January.
Sullivan sold his 24% stake in Birmingham to Carson Yeung for around £20 million in September 2009, after having helped to transform Birmingham from a run-down League One club into a thriving Premier League concern. He now believes he can do the same with West Ham, or one of the other clubs he has the chance to purchase seeking to move back into football. (ESPN)
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