{"id":719111,"date":"2026-06-06T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719111\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T14:01:10","slug":"david-sullivan-steps-down-as-west-ham-co-chairman-with-immediate-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719111\/","title":{"rendered":"David Sullivan steps down as West Ham co-chairman with immediate effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Ham United<\/a> co-owner David Sullivan has stepped down from his position as joint chairman of the club with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

The Hammers said they had “been made aware of the impending publication of serious historic allegations” concerning Sullivan.<\/p>\n

In a statement of his own, the 77-year-old said a “small number of improper conduct claims” have been made against him, adding: “I categorically deny these claims.”<\/p>\n

He said the “decades-old allegations concerning my personal life” are “factually incorrect and entirely false”.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, who had held the role for 16 years, said he stepped down “to apply my full energy and attention on fighting these false allegations”.<\/p>\n

Sullivan also said he plans to sue the BBC for libel “along with any other media outlet that repeats any libellous allegations”.<\/p>\n

The Hammers were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2025-26 season after finishing 18th.<\/p>\n

“At what is already a challenging and important time for the club, I refuse to allow personal matters concerning me to become an unnecessary distraction or a source of instability,” added Sullivan, who has also resigned as a director.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, after very careful consideration and with a heavy heart, I have decided to resign.”<\/p>\n

In a club statement, West Ham<\/a> said Sullivan has denied any “illegal conduct” and is leaving “in order to avoid disruption to the club while he addresses the matter privately”.<\/p>\n

Sullivan has been the club’s largest single shareholder since the death of his business partner David Gold<\/a> in January 2023, which left him with a 38.8% stake.<\/p>\n

Sullivan and Gold became joint chairmen of West Ham<\/a> when they completed their takeover of the club in January 2010.<\/p>\n

“It is understood none of the allegations relate to West Ham United<\/a> or any of its operations,” said West Ham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Interim chief executive officer Karim Virani, reporting into the current board of directors, will continue to be responsible for leading the club’s day-to-day operations. <\/p>\n

“The club will provide an update on the future structure of the board of directors in due course, but will make no further comment at this time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan has stepped down from his position as joint chairman of the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-719111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}