THE TEAM THAT JACK BUILT
TV exposure means Sullivan Jnr’s West Ham would be popular winners of today’s FA Cup final
The power behind one of today’s women’s FA Cup finalists is 19, does not look a day older, and is the owner’s son. So it’s safe to say his decision to allow the cameras into the club for a fly-on-the-wall documentary this season brought a serious risk of ridicule.
It helps that Jack Sullivan — son of West ham United co- owner David Sullivan and managing director of the team who will face Manchester City before a possible 50,000 people at Wembley this evening — is thick-skinned.
his mother, emma, declares in one episode of the BBC Three documentary Britain’s Youngest
Football Boss that she was sitting on her sun lounger during a foreign holiday when Sullivan Jnr said: ‘Mum, mum, mum, will you buy me West ham Ladies. Will you buy it?’
Sullivan does not redden when reminded of this and certainly doesn’t deny that he said it.
‘Obviously at the time, when I was 14, I was far too young,’ he says. ‘I can’t really remember. My
dad wasn’t there. It was my mum. I wouldn’t have asked my dad.’
eventually, dad did say yes — announcing major investment in the one-time ‘West ham Ladies’ in 2017 and installing his son, who last summer made a successful bid to get the club into the Women’s Super League.
The league needed an ‘ essex’ dimension, says the teenager. It meant leaping two divisions and the serious spending started.
he hired manager Matt Beard, who won the league twice with Liverpool and has clearly had some influence in the buying.
‘It was a mixture,’ he says of whether he or Beard decides on the signings. ‘he identified lots of players alongside our analysts, they worked hard to target players. Then I gave them the budget.’
Beard does not seem affronted that the TV show gives Sullivan the ‘football boss’ title.
Sullivan won’t discuss how big the budget is, though it is not insignificant given that West ham have persuaded such established stars as captain Gilly Flaherty and Jane Ross to make a leap of faith, leaving Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.
A sense of how things ran emerged in an episode of the show in which Sullivan is filmed telling his former general manager Karen Ray: ‘ Dad said can we find out about the winger from the Netherlands,’ to which Ray replies: ‘I’ll have a Google. You know she’s going to be (salary-wise) on something ridiculous.’
But Sullivan Jnr’s inherent likability and energy for the job have made the programme a big hit, capturing 1.3million viewers when screening on the BBC1 slot after Match of the Day.
The FA love the effect it has had. The club have also fared better than expected, reaching a Wembley final in their first year as a professional outfit. They had a terrible time in January — four straight defeats and barely enough players to form a subs’ bench.
But the winter acquisitions of South Korean captain Cho Sohyun and Canadian Adriana Leon made a huge difference.
The team’s source of income has been more controversial.
Sportsmail revealed in January that the club left themselves open to a potential conflict of interest by allowing a leading agency, Unique Sports Management, to become shirt sponsors for £250,000.
Sullivan says the loss-making women’s team need the sponsorship and does not see the conflict. ‘Most, if not all, women’s teams lose money,’ he says.
The team — and the women’s game — certainly need to grow audiences. Sullivan says his own side’s attendances are up ‘112 per cent’. But they generally attract 1,200, with bigger crowds only for big ticket games.
It’s why West ham were so disappointed about the Premier League’s unwillingness to bring forward their men’s match against Southampton today, allowing fans to attend both games.
City captain Steph houghton said of that decision: ‘It was probably a bit short notice.’
City, undefeated domestically all season, are 1-5 favourites with some bookies, having beaten West ham 7-1 and 3-1 in the league this season. But the documentary makes West ham the neutrals’ favourite.
‘The filming was a gamble,’ Sullivan says. ‘It paid off. If what you’re doing is good, it’s not a problem.’