West Ham Prepares for Sullivan's Controversial Return Amid Turmoil

David Sullivan is expected to walk back into London Stadium on Saturday, stepping into a storm his own club have been advised to avoid.

West Ham’s former co-chair, who resigned in June, plans to attend the Carabao Cup first-round tie against Portsmouth despite being urged to stay away from home matches. London Stadium officials have “recommended” to the club that the 77-year-old does not come, warning of potential fan unrest if he does.

West Ham are preparing for him anyway.

Sullivan, who still holds a 38.8% stake and remains the club’s major shareholder, has been at the centre of serious allegations since a joint investigation by BBC Panorama and The Times reported that seven women have accused him of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour. He has categorically denied all allegations.

The Portsmouth game will be West Ham’s first outing since those claims became public. It will not feel like a routine early-season cup tie.

Stadium on alert

London Stadium has asked for advance notice of any visit by Sullivan so it can put extra safety and operational measures in place. The request underlines how sensitive his presence has become, both for the club and the venue that hosts it.

The stadium’s hierarchy only recently discovered that Sullivan has been banned from contact with West Ham’s women’s and youth teams for the past three years because of safeguarding concerns. That restriction, revealed in the same Panorama and Times investigation, followed a historical allegation reported to the Football Association in 2023. Sullivan has previously said that allegation was false.

The revelation that the stadium did not know about a three-year safeguarding ban until the BBC’s report has deepened the sense of unease around his role.

Fan anger, old and new

Sullivan was already a lightning rod for anger long before the latest allegations surfaced. His stewardship of the club had drawn fierce criticism from large sections of the fanbase, and West Ham’s relegation to the Championship last season — their first drop since 2011 — only hardened that mood.

Abuse from the stands had become a familiar soundtrack to his tenure. Now, with serious off-field accusations layered on top of sporting disappointment, the atmosphere around his possible return to the directors’ box is combustible.

Yet on the pitch, the picture is calmer. Manager Nuno Espirito Santo has committed his future. So has captain Jarrod Bowen. The squad looks stable enough for a promotion push. The dissonance is stark: a club that appears organised on the grass, and deeply unsettled everywhere else.

Power struggle in the boardroom

While Sullivan clings to his influence, the shareholding map around him is shifting.

Vanessa Gold, daughter of the late co-chair David Gold, had initially moved towards selling part of her stake to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. She changed course. Instead of a partial sale to Kretinsky, she agreed to sell her entire 25.1% holding to Amanda Staveley, best known as the public face of the Saudi Arabia-backed takeover at Newcastle United.

Just as that seemed set to reshape the ownership picture, another twist arrived. Kretinsky has since sold a small portion of his own shares, dropping his stake below 25%. That apparently minor adjustment could have major consequences.

Under West Ham’s pre-emption rights, existing shareholders get first refusal when shares go up for sale. With his holding now under the 25% threshold, Kretinsky could move to buy Gold’s stake under those rules. If he did, he would become the club’s largest shareholder — crucially, without triggering another clause that would force him to buy the rest of the club.

The result is a boardroom in flux, with Sullivan under intense scrutiny, Gold exiting, Kretinsky manoeuvring, and Staveley waiting in the wings.

Record crowd, uneasy backdrop

On Saturday, the football itself will play out in front of a huge audience. West Ham expect the tie against fellow Championship side Portsmouth (15:00 BST) to set a new attendance record for an EFL Cup first-round match. The club has already sold 55,000 season tickets for the new campaign, a remarkable show of loyalty given the turbulence.

Those supporters will come to see a team they hope can drag West Ham straight back to the Premier League. They may also witness a defining moment in the club’s modern history: a deeply controversial major shareholder returning to his seat, in a stadium on edge, with the future ownership of the club hanging in the balance.