West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has defied advice to stay away from the London Stadium by attending the Carabao Cup tie against Portsmouth.
Sullivan, 77, stepped down from his position of co-chair of the club in June following a joint investigation by the BBC and The Times that accused him of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour by seven women. The businessman remains West Ham’s largest shareholder and has categorically denied the allegations, describing them as “factually incorrect and entirely false, decades-old allegations concerning my personal life”.
The London Stadium this week confirmed that it had “recommended” to West Ham that Sullivan stay away from home fixtures, and asked for advance notice of any planned visits by Sullivan, who retains a 38.8% stake in the club, in order to implement additional safety and operational measures.
The first-round Carabao Cup tie against Portsmouth is the first competitive fixture West Ham have played since the allegations were first reported. The east London club were relegated from the Premier League to the Championship last season.
The BBC Panorama and Times investigation also revealed that Sullivan has been banned by the Football Association (FA) from having contact with West Ham’s women and youth teams for three years due to safeguarding concerns.
Sullivan has said of the action by the FA: “I wish to clarify recent media reports regarding a negotiated agreement with the Football Association, which has been inaccurately described as a disciplinary ‘ban’.
“In my entire 16 years at West Ham I have never met any academy or women’s team players one-to-one, therefore I negotiated and temporary agreement with the FA not to do so until the FA resolved an outstanding complaint in relation to a single anonymous complaint regarding an event in 1981.
“The complaint had nothing to do about my time in football and it never happened. I saw it as a meaningless restriction, as it didn’t impact on my work in any way. Therefore, I accepted it for a quiet life.”
The make-up of West Ham’s ownership group is due to change after Vanessa Gold, daughter of former West Ham chair David Gold, reached an agreement to sell her family’s 25.1 per cent share in the club to a consortium led by Amanda Staveley, the former co-owner of Newcastle.
