West Ham seeking £80m investment to help clear debts ahead of Olympic Stadium move

The owners have offered a 20 per cent stake in the club

A view of West Ham's Upton Park stadium (Getty Images)

West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has revealed the club have offered a 20 per cent stake for sale in a bid to help clear their debts.

Sullivan told the Sunday Telegraph he and fellow owner David Gold are seeking to raise £80million to help reduce debts which currently stand at £110million, of which £55million is owed to Gold and Sullivan.

Sullivan believes the upcoming move to the Olympic Stadium means the club is worth £400million - almost four times its value when he and Gold bought the Hammers in January 2010.

"We've no desire to give up the whole club," Sullivan said. "But we're still £110million in debt - albeit now £55million of that is to ourselves. So the third-party debt has been halved, but only because we've put the money in.

"We lost £30million when we went down (to the Championship in 2011) and we made £10million on paper last year. What's on paper is not cash-flow and we have to pay down the debt all the time and we have to be clear of bank debt when we move to the Olympic Stadium.

"I'd love someone to come in and buy 20 per cent and the money would not go to us, it would go to the club. But we won't be giving it away and we'd want market value for it.

"Going to the Olympic Stadium we are a £400million club and that would pay down most of the debt. But if it doesn't happen we'll dig deep in our pockets and keep the club afloat."

With West Ham challenging at the top end of the Barclays Premier League after an outstanding start to the campaign, Sullivan also admitted he did not yet know if manager Sam Allardyce - under pressure seven months ago - would sign a new contract with the club.

"I must say if come April we are where we are now, which is extremely unlikely but is possible, we'd probably sit down a month early and say, 'Look Sam, do you want to stay or do you want to go?' Sam may decide he wants to go out a winner," Sullivan said.

PA