Source: Daily_Mail
Charles Sale: Clock is ticking for West Ham chiefs
West Ham, despite the progress being made by manager Gianfranco Zola's improving team, have been reduced off the pitch to mere pawns in Icelandic bank trading.[LNB]This has seen effective ownership being passed to Icelandic banking concern Straumur.[LNB] West Ham Chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson[LNB] More from Charles Sale... Charles Sale: New complications down at the Palace15/04/09 Charles Sale: Welsh kept waiting over bid to switch14/04/09 Charles Sale: Cook to keep his job at City despite Kaka fiasco12/04/09 Charles Sale: Wembley gigs have Fabio at fever pitch 10/04/09 Charles Sale: ECB panic almost taken to the Max09/04/09 Charles Sale: Sir Dave spices up England's 2018 World Cup bid09/04/09 Charles Sale: Coup as Amy wins bookies' backing07/04/09 Charles Sale: Derby on a loser in search for a sponsor06/04/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEThey are now the club's major creditor following the collapse of theHansa operation through which chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson boughthis 95 per cent holding in 2006.[LNB]Gudmundsson and vice-chairman Asgeir Fridgeirsson are likely to be removed imminently from the West Ham board by the controllers of Straumur, who are being re-structured following their own financial meltdown, only adding to the complication for Hammers fans.[LNB]One result of the Straumur takeover has been the return to the club in a new day-to-day communications role of top spin-doctor Phil Hall, the former News of the World editor who was advising Manchester City.[LNB]West Ham are well represented on the spinning front as another heavyweight PR operator, Mike Lee, who has been advising the board, will remain working for the club as their overall strategist and on special projects.[LNB] Carl Maes, head of women's tennis at the super dysfunctional Lawn Tennis Association, is set to quit the organisation just four months after he was one of the few members of staff who received a bonus.[LNB]Maes, who was given an extra £25,000 when a pay freeze was in operation for most of the Roehampton employees, is understood to be unsettled for family reasons.[LNB]He has the two children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce, living in Belgium.[LNB]The LTA first denied there was any problem with Maes before accepting there were 'unresolved issues' which may result in his departure.[LNB] Brian Moore, the former England rugby player now writing his idea of a sports column in the Daily Telegraph, was due to be the star turn of the Crown Prosecution Service's football conference at Charlton FC on Thursday, giving a media perspective on their work.[LNB]However, Moore failed to show up, much to the organisers' distress, despite confirming he would be there only the day before.[LNB]The conference chairman, who had to organise a last-minute stand-in from the CPS's media department, said Moore, who was not returning phone calls, had 'just disappeared.'[LNB] Australia captain Ricky Ponting[LNB]Australia captain Ricky Ponting received a lot of flak Down Under after England's Ashes success in 2005 for his side being too friendly with the opposition.[LNB]So a lot of Aussies will be surprised that a charity dinner for the Ponting Foundation, with plenty of involvement from the England Test opposition, is being held in London on July 13, just a day after the first Test in Cardiff and three days before the Lord's Test begins.[LNB]Seven England players, including Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook, have been asked to host tables at the function for which top-paying guests sitting with them will have to fork out nearly £300 a head.[LNB] The biggest problem facing England's new cricket coach, Andy Flower, is likely to be the constant sniping from one of his predecessors, Duncan Fletcher, who still hasn't got over losing the job two years ago.[LNB]Not only was Fletcher's autobiography one big whinge, but he has kept in touch with a number of England players who are as well briefed about his opinions on Flower as they were with Fletcher's negative views on his successor, Peter Moores.[LNB]The word from inside Lord's is that the Ashes winning coach has become a sad and bitter man.[LNB] Manchester United are so secretive about their London commercial operation, which is causing great interest among the capital's Premier League clubs, that not only is there no sign of their presence outside the plush Pall Mall premises but their name doesn't even appear on the list of companies working in the building.[LNB] [LNB] [LNB]
