Reading Between the Lines: Governance and Fan Scrutiny
One skill West Ham watchers need to learn is to read between the lines. On Halloween the sorcerers who run the club published the official records of a meeting between Lady Brady’s management team and the supporter reps on the club’s Fan Advisory Board (FAB). It was more trick than treat. The following day the FAB published its analysis of the club’s answers to the questions fans had posed. The first question was: “When will the Club move to a professional governance model (CEO + Director of Football with autonomy)?” The FAB’s view was that the club only answered this in part. “The club confirmed Karren Brady is full-time CEO – but she is only responsible for matters outside player trading and recruitment and the club gave no change, review, or succession plan.”
The CEO’s Workload: Questioning ‘Full-Time’ Status
But let’s just pick holes in this. The UK Parliament website lists attendance at the House of Lords. Publication is slightly in arrears so only the first five months of this year were available at the time of writing. They show Baroness Karren Brady attended the Lords an average of five days a month. That’s one week per month away from West Ham. Baroness Brady also writes a weekly column for The Sun newspaper and her website says she writes for several women’s magazines too. She is involved in filming The Apprentice and has, in the past, worked on other TV programmes. Companies House has her listed as a director of several UK-based businesses (some as Baroness and some before her elevation to the Lords). She has held non-exec roles in the past too, including Simon Cowell’s Syco. According to her entry on the House of Lords Register of Interests, she has had nine paid speaking engagements in 2025 and been on two photoshoots, one for Malibu and one for Nationwide. She is an adviser for charity Omaze and, via Deloitte, advises Sport England. She is a paid consultant to ciggie-maker Philip Morris. With that additional workload, it’s hard to see how she can claim to be a full-time CEO of West Ham. Shakespeare has a phrase for when someone is thought to be hiding something and their sincerity is in doubt: “The lady doth protest too much.”
Financial and Infrastructure Concerns Remain
The FAB response was critical of several aspects of the management’s presentation. It said fans needed more clarity on the credibility of the club’s financial strategy. Concerns included the current PSR headroom, transfer budget impact and the long-term financial roadmap, including how West Ham will handle future risks, such as being relegated from the Premier League. On the London Stadium, the FAB lamented that there remained “no guarantee of the necessary change to the infrastructure to help improve the matchday experience”. For most of the questions, the FAB said they had been “partially” or “barely” answered, or matters had been “explained but not justified”. Only the question relating to the club’s heritage was fully answered with an archivist hired, items already catalogued and plans detailed for a museum at the London Stadium by autumn next year. There remains, though, a big gap between the fans and the current club owners and managers.
Cooperation and Complex Solutions in Sub-Groups
Meanwhile, the three new sub-groups have met for the first time. These cover ticketing, justice and the matchday experience. The ticketing committee minutes have already been published on the club’s website, and were online within the agreed timescale. These are nitty-gritty discussions and all involved are finding their feet and trying to build trust and a way of mutually cooperating. The club has improved significantly over the past 18 months or so, but from such a low base there is still room for improvement. But expectations need to be managed too. Even with further collaboration many of the fan concerns are not going to be quick fixes. There are often legal, regulatory and commercial barriers to overcome, with some of those jarring against others. Solutions will need to be carefully calculated and then tested. There will also be overlaps between the sub-groups. For example, many of the disciplinary cases relate to ticketing. The season ticket T&Cs are nearly 5,000 words long. Technically, if you swap seats with the person next to you, that’s a ban, let alone if you go and sit with a mate who has a spare seat next to them in a different part of the ground. Similarly, part of the matchday experience work is to create a singing zone with fans having flags and scarves and coordinated songs and chants. That will mean a system to move those who want to be in that zone into it and find appropriate and equivalent seating for those moving out. These are complicated but not impossible tasks. Collaboration will be crucial. The fans are ready to cooperate. We just have to hope the club sees us as critical friends who want the best for our club.
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