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After acquiring a 27% stake in West Ham United, it’s only a matter of time before Daniel Kretinsky takes complete control over the club.
That’s according to talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan, who also compared the Czech billionaire’s Hammers swoop to how Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke started accumulating shares before eventually taking complete control at the Emirates.
Kretinsky, the 46-years-old known as the ‘Czech Sphinx’, is said to worth around $3billion and was pictured at the London Stadium in the club’s victory over Liverpool.
Whilst he only has a small share in the club in this moment in time, the ruthless businessman – who also commands stakes in J Sainsbury and Royal Mail – may take a larger share in years to come.
According to The Athletic, Kretinsky values the club at £600million ($804m) and handed over £127m ($170m) for his current stake.
The move has been suggested as a ‘precursor’ before he acquires the whole club, as former Crystal Palace owner Jordan offered his take on the move on talkSPORT.
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The White and Jordan host said: “I would suspect this is a precursor to this guy [Kretinsky] owning the football club.
“And also that [David] Sullivan and [David] Gold have positioned themselves from this particular starting point as having someone in the building who may well be their exit strategy.”
In purchasing 27% of the club, Kretinsky has cemented himself into the West Ham board.
It’s something that Arsenal owner Kroenke did when he first acquired a part of the north London club back in 2007.
The American purchased 9.9% of shares of the Gunners then, before eventually buying out Danny Fiszman (16.1%) and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith (15.9%) in 2011.
In buying out Fiszman and Bracewell-Smith and other smaller owners, Kroenke increased his control of the club to 62% and in doing so became the major shareholder in Arsenal.
He eventually took complete control in April 2018 when he purchased Alisher Usmanov’s 30% stake in Arsenal for $712m (£550m).
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Kretinsky has purchased a larger portion of West Ham than what Kroenke was initially able to at Arsenal, but the two deals have been compared by Jordan.
“It’s very similar, Kroenke took a position at Arsenal and then built up, built up, built up and acquired the lot,” said the talkSPORT pundit.
“West Ham are in decent nick, the valuation of 600 million quid is 20%, 30% more than what [Crystal] Palace sold 20% more of their business for.
“Palace sold 20% for 90 million quid valuing them at 450 million quid because some people would suggest that West Ham might be a far more valuable commodity than Crystal Palace.
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“I’m not in that camp because they’re both in London and they both have big catchment areas and big fan bases.
“Obviously West Ham are more livery and slightly more reputation than Palace but they’re both in the same space in the Premier League and West Ham right now are going great guns because they’re ‘massive‘.
“With all things being mindful it’s incredibly advantageous to have somebody of this ilk in the business.”
