WEST HAM’S NEW OWN GOAL
Club owners’ spending claims in the spotlight
The level of investment in football by West ham owners David Sullivan and David Gold was in the spotlight last night as the fallout from their incredible row with Sky rumbled on.
Claims made on the pair’s behalf on Sky’s Sunday Supplement programme last Sunday about their spending at Birmingham were incomplete. Much of the money for the redevelopment of St Andrew’s came, in fact, from other sources. Attributing to the duo an award the stadium received four years after they sold the club was also inaccurate.
During the 90- second apology which Sky made to West ham for ‘ factual inaccuracies’ on the programme the previous Sunday, stand-in presenter Geoff Shreeves noted Sullivan and Gold’s investment in St Andrew’s when they owned Birmingham between 1993 and 2009. The reference to their spending at
Birmingham was included at West ham’s request following legal correspondence with Sky Sports last week.
Sullivan and Gold had objected to a reference by Jacqui Oatley to St Andrew’s getting ‘barely a lick of paint’ during their ownership on the January 26 programme.
Towards the end of Sky’s lengthy apology to West ham, Shreeves changed the subject to their time at Birmingham, saying Sullivan and Gold ‘invested in the redevelopment of the ground including three new stands and 22,000 new seats’ and that ‘as a result St Andrew’s has been awarded Asset of Community Value status’.
Sportsmail can reveal this award was not related to any improvements made to St Andrew’s, much of which was not funded by Sullivan and Gold.
A significant part of the funding for two of the three stands referenced by Sky — the Kop and the Tilton Stand, which were completed in November 1993 — came from a £2million grant made by the Football Trust, a precursor to the Football Foundation.
In the early 1990s, the Football Trust awarded a series of grants to help clubs upgrade their grounds after the Taylor Report into the hillsborough disaster recommended a move to all-seat stadiums. The redevelopment of the Gil Merrick Stand was partially funded by a share issue when Birmingham became a PLC in the late 1990s.
In addition, the link made by Sky to such building work resulting in St Andrew’s being granted Asset of Community Value status — again at West ham’s request — appears to be inaccurate.
This designation had nothing to do with Sullivan and Gold, or even the condition of St Andrew’s, but was the result of an application in 2013 by a fans group called the Blues Trust to protect the ground should any future owners seek to sell it.
West ham do not dispute that Birmingham received a Football Trust grant to help with the redevelopment, although they say that Sullivan and Gold also provided funding.
The club say the information given to Sky Sports was simply a rebuttal of Oatley’s claims that the pair did not spend a penny on St Andrew’s while at Birmingham, which the broadcaster apologised for. Sky Sports declined to comment.