20 Jun 2020 07:42:45
Morning guys and Ed's, there's a report out this morning that West Ham could be heading for an American takeover led by Tripp Smith, anyone heard anything, or can the Ed's shed any light on this?

{Ed002's Note - It is probably a good time for this question. Firstly, there are two groups circling premier league clubs with a view to buying. One is digital media distributer Henry Mauriss who is interested in buying Newcastle United if the deal with the Saudis falls through - he could also be persuaded that there is value in other clubs such as West Ham. The second is rather more "shark" like. Ex Bordeaux owner Joseph DaGrosa and Hugo Varela (who has work as an intermediary and run "for profit" soccer schools) have formed a business called Kapital Football with a view to emulating the City Group. They tried to buy Newcastle as a starting point but that was always a non-starter - they would like a club that is a "lion waiting to roar" as their start and would also like it to be a Premier League club, possibly London based, with owners perhaps willing open to selling at a reasonable price - and that very much makes West Ham the most attractive. This would be known to Tripp Smith who may well be looking to increasing his 10% share to 30% which means he can make an offer for the entire club but to do that he would need the help of one of the owners. The covernent runs out in 2021 means that the owners can then sell the club if they wish. Smith would get a £10M discount offsetting his loan if and when that happens.

If, however, the owners decide they do not want to sell they can easily block it using their combined 86% ownership.

So nothing can happen until next year at the earliest.}

1.) 20 Jun 2020
20 Jun 2020 09:42:19
Great knowledge as always, thanks for that Ed.

{Ed002's Note - You are welcome.}

2.) 21 Jun 2020
21 Jun 2020 18:14:01
Reading up on Trip Smith I note he called his company Iron Park. That'll do for me lol.