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Coronavirus shutdown could hurt West Ham for years to come

By Scott Johnson

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A General view of the London Stadium, home of West Ham United as all Premier League matches are postponed until at least April 4th due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on March 14, 2020 in London, England. It has been announced that all football league matches, including the Premier League and Women’s Super League, have been postponed until at least April 4 in response to the threat of coronavirus. This follows UEFA's decision to suspend fixtures in the Champion's League and the Europa League, as many top flight players enter self-isolation. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A General view of the London Stadium, home of West Ham United as all Premier League matches are postponed until at least April 4th due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on March 14, 2020 in London, England. It has been announced that all football league matches, including the Premier League and Women’s Super League, have been postponed until at least April 4 in response to the threat of coronavirus. This follows UEFA's decision to suspend fixtures in the Champion's League and the Europa League, as many top flight players enter self-isolation. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) /
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With the Premier League scheduled to resume in the coming weeks, West Ham fans may think our troubles are coming to an end. However it’s likely the impact of this shutdown will impact the Hammers and similar sides for years to come.

I wrote an article recently about how contract issues could really impact the Premier League when the season resumes, but West Ham should come out ok as long as they could sort Soucek’s loan conditions (Which they now have). But this is only the start of how the COVID-19 shutdown will begin to impact the side and the Premier League as a whole.

Let’s assume all goes well in the restart, and all contracts are sorted to end at the conclusion of the season and that we avoid relegation. Even if those other teams are unsuccessful in staying up through appeal (Villa and Bournemouth have already made noises about suing the league for money or status if they do end up in the bottom three), prize money is likely to be down for Premier League places.

Advertisers have taken a hit through this off period and unless there is a massive revenue channel created from the restart all involved will be worse off. So we’ll see a drop in expected finances there.

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The restart, either in hub-form or empty stadiums, will not provide West Ham with the income they are used to from match days. Even though our stadium rental agreement means we are better off than those who have recently built their own stadium, we’re going to be missing a lot of matchday income.

That includes any revenue that comes from merchandise on those days as well. For clubs like us, without owners willing to inject cash at the drop of a hat or recent big fanbase boosting signings, we’re going to be struggling to maintain any relevant cashflow.

There are already rumours that we are going to have to sell some big ticket players in order to be able to do any activity in the summer break, and I think that’s likely. Someone like Felipe Anderson who could fetch a big price when he’s not performing particularly well is the immediate candidate, but there are worries Declan Rice could be sold if a monster bid comes in. He is our future on the pitch, but if the club can’t sustain Premier League survival without the money then the board will prioritise that without hesitation.

With something like that the next few years are used to consolidate, hopefully solidify Premier League status and evaluate what comes next. Any plans that the board may have had to bring in an exciting new manager or invest are gone, and budget management becomes the only goal for two or three years. It isn’t going to be summer spending on stars for a long while. But I can’t see us being the only people hit by the shutdown in such a way, so maybe there’s hope for us holding our ground against other teams in the same position?

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But if we end up selling to maintain our position, and to strengthen around the squad, we’re going to be feeling the impact of this for a long time. Star players will gravitate to the big clubs who can guarantee big wages despite the disruption, and those unable to compete could be in trouble in the coming years. Unless FIFA and UEFa take a stand and impose stricter FFP to help equalise the impacts, there is unlikely to be any power shifts in Europe’s top leagues.