West Ham Takeover Bids

It appears there are worries about the finances behind both West Ham takeover consortiums. According to The Guardian Kia Joorabchian's bid is understood to be on the precipice after two elapsed deadlines, the latest on Monday. The paper also claims there are concerns that the bid fronted by Eggert Magnusson involves creating more debt for the club.

However Magnussen denies this and his consortium is believed to be backed by a 'Scandinavian financier' who has personal assets in excess of £500m and could comfortably afford the debt-plus-equity deal that values West Ham at almost £100m.

Kia Joorabchian's bid also seems to have been helped by the announcement yesterday by Pini Zahavi, the broker in Abramovich's Chelsea purchase and an associate of Joorabchian, in which he said he is seeking two clubs at which to install other Russian oligarchs.

So do the West Ham board want to sell to a 'Russian oligarch' or to Magnusson, who has been the head of his country's football federation for 18 years, is on Uefa's executive committee and is director of an Icelandic investment bank? Rumours suggest Terence Brown and Paul Aldridge prefer the former.