The Royal Mail comes first. West Ham next? Reluctance to expand his English empire by buying one of the Premier League’s most renowned clubs was mentioned by sources close to Daniel Kretinsky yesterday; yet, each response was marked with an asterisk, which is telling.
Those who were expecting he would be the rich guy who could take them to the next level would be disappointed by that. If making such a crude comparison between a businessman whose investment in the Eustream pipeline led to a recent Daily Telegraph headline reading, “How Russian gas is fuelling a bid for Royal Mail,” then consider him the Roman Abramovich to their Chelsea. at November 2021, Kretinsky invested over £160 million to acquire a 27% stake at West Ham, making him the club’s second-largest shareholder, after David Sullivan’s 38.8%.
Daniel Kretinsky, a Czech billionaire, intends to purchase Royal Mail’s parent company for £3.5 billion through his investment firm. With a stake of 38.8%, Kretinsky is West Ham’s second-largest stakeholder behind David Sullivan (pictured).
Kretinsky hasn’t made an attempt to raise his stake since then. Not even when Vanessa, the daughter of David Gold, told her fellow investors in October 2023 that she was selling some of her shares—a chance that gave him a shot at becoming the majority owner.
According to sources who were updated yesterday, Sullivan, 75, does not see any change to the current ownership split in the near future and is not willing to give up even a small portion of his stake.
Due to his affiliation with his childhood club, Sparta Prague, Kretinsky is not involved in football-related decisions at West Ham, as that would be against UEFA regulations. Instead, he receives reports from his right-hand men on the Premier League team, Jiri Svarc and Pavel Horkey. Sources emphasise that Kretinsky had no input at all when the decision was made to part ways with David Moyes.
We are aware that he enjoys listening to U2 and Pink Floyd. We are aware that he will read anything published by Josef Skvoerecky or Milan Kundera. The exact number of games he has seen this season while on the sidelines is unknown, though. A West Ham director estimated yesterday that he had seen him six times at the London Stadium, with the majority of his time being spent flying in private jets across Europe in search of the next big deal.
In June 2023, Kretinsky made time in his busy schedule for the celebration in Prague. He was determined not to miss witnessing their victory over Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League at Slavia Prague, the bitter rivals of his beloved Sparta. He was especially happy that the team included two Czechs, Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal. He had grown to love West Ham since 1990, when the team’s first player to play in English football was Ludek Miklosko, or “the man from near Moscow,” as the supporters like to refer to him.
According to insiders, Sparta is Kretinsky’s “first love,” and this attachment plays a big role in the likelihood that West Ham would not be completely taken over. Though he still views himself as something of an outsider, Kretinsky feels an owner should have a tangible connection to his team, using the word “guilty” to describe how he would feel about taking over the English giants. Despite the fact that he is about to become the owner of a company whose red boxes are so iconically British that they line our streets, Kretinsky views football differently from his other commercial ventures due to the emotional component of the game.
Even though the Premier League is inundated with foreign owners elsewhere, he maintains that you have to earn the right to advance to majority ownership. He’s most at ease in the minority ownership role at West Ham. You can never be certain about the “Czech Sphinx,” at least not for the time being.