West Ham Owner David Sullivan Set To Sell West Ham United And Purchase Cardiff City.
According to sources working for Malaysian Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, a deal is being negotiated with West Ham’s current owner, David Sullivan.
However, they claim that the deal will take over a year to go through due to Sullivan’s current situation of working on negotiations to sell his majority stake in the Premiership East End club before he can complete a deal with billionaire Vincent Tan, who himself has ploughed multi-millions into the Welsh club.
Tan took Cardiff City twice into the Premier League – although relegated straight away on both occasions, is well known to be demanding a high price for a club with a history of issues since his tenure. However, with the windfall of avoiding the expiry of a significant clause in the club’s contract with its London Stadium landlords. As of March 2023, the Hammers owners would no longer have to share 20 per cent from a £300million-plus sale with the LLDC.
The London Legacy Development Corporation is an organisation established in 2012, replacing the Olympic Park Legacy Company and the planning powers of the Olympic Delivery Authority. It was formed as a mayoral development corporation under the management of the Localism Act 2011.
Sullivan grew up in Penarth Cardiff and has publicly stated he would at some stage purchase his hometown club.
In 1999, Sullivan, via his brother Clive, whilst the owner of Birmingham City, came close to realising his dream, just after his brother David appeared on ITV’s Through The Keyhole with Sir David Frost stating at the time, ‘ One day I will buy my hometown club.’
At the time, the deal was initially agreed upon before collapsing after Cardiff shareholders upped their share price demands; ironically, one of those directors was Samesh Kumar, the previous owner of Birmingham City.
At the time, David Sullivan left his large deposit placed in the Welsh Club as an interest-free loan, telling then cash-strapped Club Chairman Steve Borley, ‘ pay it back when you can,’ demonstrating further his love for his hometown club.
Borley went on to sell the club to David Sullivan’s friend, Sam Hamman, who took the lower league club to the top of the Championship before being ousted by then-other board directors.
With Tan wanting away from the Welsh Club and Sullivan released from LLDC agreements, according to close sources in Malaysia, it’s just a waiting game until Sullivan has all his ducks in a row.
The Cardiff-born Malaysian lawyer told Global247news. ‘It’s nearly all agreed despite being a complicated deal due to Cardiff City’s immense debts and high asking price, with most of the debt owed to the Berjaya group of Vincent Tan.
‘It’s going to take around 12 months to complete further, but I’m confident it will go through’, he finished.