Staveley has been on the lookout for fresh football investment since leaving Newcastle two years ago
Former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley(Image: High Performance Podcast)
Former Newcastle United co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi have opened ‘exploratory talks’ as they look into a potential deal to buy West Ham United.
Staveley and Ghodoussi’s investment firm PCP Capital Partners have been linked with a takeover of a number of clubs since the pair left Newcastle in the summer of 2024, and a bid to buy Tottenham was firmly on their radar at the back end of last year.
But now the Mail Online report they are keen to buy the Hammers, who have just been recently relegated from the Premier League down to the Championship.
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Staveley, alongside the Reuben brothers, helped steer the Saudi Public investment Fund-backed takeover of Newcastle in October 2021 and the financier was seen as the ‘face’ of the ownership during her two-and-a-half years on Tyneside.
Newcastle were in the Premier League’s relegation zone at the time of the takeover and by the end of Staveley’s time at the club they had reached a cup final and qualified for the Champions League.
It is that type of rags to riches challenge of reawakening a sleeping giant that appeals to Staveley and that is why West Ham, with their 62,500 capacity London Stadium and Europa Conference League winners as recently as 2023, appeals so much.
The 53-year-old admitted earlier this week that they have been putting the wheels in motion on a new global fund to buy into a club as she aims to copy the journey she enjoyed at Newcastle.
“Our main focus has been on the raising of our new sports and media fund and investing that money,” she told Spear’s Magazine. “It’s a global fund. We’ve got some fantastic general partners. We’ve got the Reuben Brothers with us again which is really exciting.
“We’re very proud of the work we did with PIF that we did with Newcastle and we’re trying to kind of replicate that journey. So we’re looking for really opportunistic assets that you can buy well, invest well, eventually exit which is always a difficult subject.
“For us, prior to looking at football we were all very passionate about Newcastle. Newcastle is an amazing brand that hadn’t had a huge amount of investment but we look for assets that are where we can really build and develop a brand, and develop growth.
“The biggest thing that drives football is football success. So with Newcastle, at the fundamental basis of that deal, was to make sure we could get the right football [results] and that’s really hard.
“Anyone going into football, I can tell you it’s really tough. It’s hard work, it is exhausting – there are great highs and great lows but you’ve got to get the buying right, you’ve got to get the selling right, you’ve got to get the investment right.
“We’ve looked at a lot of clubs including Tottenham, but we are looking at clubs around the Premier League and the UK, Europe and you know we’re hoping and we really want to be buying and going in and investing into a club again very soon hopefully. There’s some amazing clubs around.”
When asked about possibly buying West Ham, Staveley replied: “Maybe, there are amazing clubs around. Again, great brands, same thing, same story.
“Both my husband and I were attracted to building a business where we can take a brand that isn’t doing so well, a club that isn’t performing well, get it on the right road and bring that forward. And and that means there are very few clubs that work if you want to tick every box.”
West Ham’s ownership group is currently led by majority shareholder David Sullivan (38.8 per cent), Daniel Kretinsky (27 per cent) and other investors including the Gold Family Trust (25.1 per cent).
Sullivan stepped down as joint-chairman and director earlier this month, ahead of allegations concerning his personal life being published in the press.
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