After walking away from Manchester United, Sheikh Jassim could still invest in the Premier League, with a stake of up to ten percent in West Ham United up for sale.
Vanessa Gold, the daughter of the club’s late joint-chairman David Gold, could reportedly be willing to sell the entire shareholding.
The Gold family has a 25 percent shareholding in West Ham, and it’s understood she has already hired the Rothschild Bank to broker the sale of a part of that stake.
Sheikh Jassim has emerged as a potential candidate to buy her out. His ambition to acquire at least a partial ownership of a Premier League club hasn’t subsided despite the Man United fiasco.
A potential cash influx from the Middle East could be a history-defining moment for West Ham, given the Arab petrodollar’s impressive track record in European football.
Money buys success
When the United Arab Emirates businessman Sheikh Mansour purchased Manchester City in 2008, the Cityzens were marginal players in the Premier League ecosystem.
Fifteen years on, they are a continental superpower, while their domestic supremacy has reached unprecedented heights.
Man City has gone from the second club in Manchester to second to none in the English elite division since the Qatari investments, with the club constantly improving.
Since the Qatari group started investing in the club, they’ve won 20 titles, including an unmatched seven in the Premier League and their first-ever in the Champions League.
Nassef Sawiris, the billionaire businessman who replaced Tony Xia as Aston Villa owner in 2018, has worked wonders for the Birmingham outfit.
In addition to establishing themselves as a permanent top-flight fixture during the Egyptian’s relatively brief regime, the Lions are back to European competition for the first time in over a decade.
Newcastle United are the latest example, as it took the new owners less than two years to turn long-term bottom-half strugglers into genuine top-four competitors.
All the clubs under the Arab command are thriving on and off the pitch, and the list spreads beyond the English borders.
What Nasser Al-Khelaifi has done for Paris Saint-Germain since entering the club in 2011 has forever changed the landscape of French football.
He has transformed perennial Ligue 1 strugglers into a force to be reckoned with, leading them back to a competitive guild while ensuring they go toe-to-toe with Premier League sides in the global marketplace.
There’s already a platform at West Ham
Unlike other abovementioned clubs under foreign consortium and funds’ ownerships, West Ham already boast a super-talented group of established Premier League stars.
Squad-wise, it would reduce the initial investment to a minimum, although it would perhaps help the Hammers keep hold of their most prized assets in the long run.
West Ham failed to fend off Declan Rice’s suitors despite fighting tooth and nail for years and were a step away from losing Lucas Paqueta to Man City this summer.
But the injection of foreign capital of this magnitude would be a game-changer for the London outfit moving forward.
The Arab investors are known for their aggressive approach, meaning Sheikh Jassim would probably try to acquire the majority of the stake at the club at one point in the future.
West Ham have been knocking on the door of the Premier League, but they’ve often lacked much-needed cutting edge.
Last season’s Europa Conference League triumph showed this team can challenge for major honours, and maybe Sheikh Jassim could be the catalyst to fire them higher up the ladder.
His potential involvement could have underachievers such as Man United and Chelsea looking nervously over their shoulders.
