West Ham confirm takeover dialogue

West Ham United confirmed yesterday that the man who secured them the deal to sign the Argentina internationals Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano is in talks to take over the club, after the investor Kia Joorabchian admitted that he can never go back to his Brazilian side, Corinthians.

As revealed in The Independent yesterday, Joorabchian, the Iranian financier, will make a bid valued at £60m to take over West Ham - and "exploratory talks" have begun.

In an interview with BBC Radio Five Live, Joorabchian admitted that he would "not be going back to São Paulo" because of a fear of the backlash among Corinthians fans unhappy at losing their two biggest stars.

It was confirmed yesterday that Joorabchian has withdrawn his investment from Corinthians and "forfeited" his shares in Media Sports Investment, the company that has specialised in buying up ownership of players and into clubs. The backers for MSI have long been shrouded in mystery, although Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, is not involved.

Although Joorabchian still has links with the company through Tevez and Mascherano, he is expected to raise the capital for his takeover through alternative investors. A source close to him said: "Kia is not in a financial position to buy West Ham, but he knows a lot of investors and should he decided to declare an interest would have no shortage of backers."

West Ham are a plc but they are not listed and shares are traded privately by individuals. The majority shareholder is chairman Terry Brown, an accountant, who owns more than 90 per cent of the stock, and historically the Cearns and Hills families also have an interest although it is unclear how much they actually own. The club have around £20m of debt and the value of the stadium, the Chadwell Heath training ground and playing staff has been estimated at between £45m and £60m.

Having brought two of the brightest young players in the world to West Ham, Joorabchian would be unlikely to find the same level of fans' opposition encountered by the Glazer family at Manchester United. There has been widespread opposition to Brown, who has long suggested he would sell up to the right buyer.

In his interview with Five Live, Joorabchian said he had developed a "friendship" with Brown and managing director Paul Aldridge during talks over a proposed takeover a year ago. Joorabchian has made efforts in the last 24 hours to distance himself from the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and other Russian investors and seems to have launched a public relations campaign.

Admitting he would not go back to Brazil and wished to stay in London with his mother, after the death of his father, Joorabchian said his interest in West Ham was long-standing.

"When I sat down with the boys [Tevez and Mascherano] I explained about the interest from Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea," he said. "Then I explained about West Ham and the growth of clubs like West Ham. I explained to them about West Ham and they knew about it because Lionel Scaloni had played there. I had a very open conversation.

"They thought about my logic about going to West Ham and West Ham's logic and the way the club has a very deep history. A great club with fanatical supporters like they are used to. It is important they are playing in the Uefa Cup. Tevez loves challenges, he loved the challenge at Corinthians and we went on to win championships.

"You never know in football whether they will stay three, four, five years. What is important is how the success of the two boys goes during the season. All this will have an effect on how they continue.

"But we are in an era of transfers where clubs like West Ham can do deal like this without having to have billions in the bank or without being Chelsea or Manchester United."