West Ham - Football Finances
For West Ham more and more the club's financial position has been in the news culminating in the club going being bought out by Gold and Sullivan. From the fans desire to get rid of Brown, to the strangeness of having Icelandic owners, through the Tevez mess, it has been an interesting journey.
The attached explanation of West Ham's finances shows that things deteriorated badly when the Icelandic owners took over. The club began to buy more expensive, and highly paid players, and this has shown itself in the financial results.
The 2008 results showing a £38m loss are horrific. The whole Carlos Tevez affair is listed in the accounts as having cost the club £31.8m. This of course contributes hugely to the losses, but the other years still have big losses in them.
Looking through the accounts it is clear that the club has only survived through the sale of its great crop of young players of the last few years. Even taking in to account the money that Defoe, Johnson, Joe Cole and Carrick generated the club has still steadily lost money. Either there needs to be a fundamental change in the way the club is run, or there has to be a constant stream of saleable players through the academy.
At Birmingham Gold and Sullivan ran a very tight club, and left the club with no debts and the club in a reasonable position. They may be exactly what West Ham need, but it could well be a very painful time. Their approach will be very different from the "living the dream" approach of the last few years.
This site hopefully presents to you the financial results in words that we can all understand. All the numbers quoted about the club have come from the club's own accounts. If a mistake has been made in this, and you spot it, then PLEASE let us know, the aim is to be as honest as can be. If you have more accurate information then please get in touch.
Also if you have any suggestions on what else should or could be looked at please get in touch. The intention of the site is not to try and influence your opinion on the way the club has been run, just to give you the facts, and let you draw your own conclusions.
