FIT AND PROPER PERSON?
Daivd Conn in the Guardian:
Eggert Magnusson, the long-time chairman of the Icelandic FA and former owner of a biscuit company, can hardly have dreamt of a more agreeable ride for the £85m purchase of West Ham - a warm welcome on to the Upton Park pitch last Saturday, no difficult questions, the cosy old pros on the Match of the Day couch describing him as "West Ham's new owner".
At West Ham, the truth is that Magnusson is not even the new "owner". The deal's principal financial backer is Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, a major business figure in Iceland. The Guardian has learned he owns 95% of WH Holding, the company formed to take over the club.
He has had a remarkable voyage, recovering to build a fortune after being convicted in 1991 of accounting offences and embezzlement after the collapse of the shipping line Hafskip, then Iceland's stormiest financial scandal.
He was given a suspended prison sentence, then went abroad to make his money - to St Petersburg where, in post-communism Russia,he and his son, Bjorgolfur Thor Bjorgolfsson, steered their brewing company, Bravo, through the maelstrom and sold it to Heineken five years ago for $400m (approximately £275m).
Gudmundsson returned to Iceland and bid to take over Landsbanki, the former National Bank of Iceland. Since then Landsbanki has acquired financial institutions here, and Gudmundsson's other vehicle, the shipping line Eimskip, has also expanded overseas.
His spokesman was not at all evasive about his financial motivations for taking over West Ham. "Long term," he said, "this is also a business opportunity. There is a great deal of television money and you can see commercial opportunity flowing from that."
Gudmundsson in his youth was a leading member of Iceland's equivalent to the Conservatives, the Independence Party, and had risen up the Hafskip ranks when the company began to sink in the mid-1980s. It was declared insolvent in December 1985 and the collapse swelled to a scandal because of the severe pressure it put on Utvegsbanki, Iceland's Fisheries Bank.
The affair, which sucked in senior politicians too, led to the most complicated financial prosecution Iceland had seen. Most of those charged were acquitted but on June 5 1991 Gudmundsson was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. He was found guilty of irregularities in the preparation of Hafskip's quarterly and annual financial statements, and of embezzlement - using the company's money for various activities of his own.
"The conviction was a long time ago," his spokesman said. "Mr Gudmundsson has come a long way, been very successful in business. He sponsors many sports and is well respected in Iceland."
Several of Gudmundsson's associates are expected to join in shortly and buy part of his stake, leaving him still as the largest single shareholder.
Any person convicted of a criminal offence here or abroad is disqualified from becoming a director or major shareholder of a Premier League club - but the "fit and proper person test" does not bar Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson from West Ham because it applies only to offences committed since August 2004, when the test was introduced.
New directors or major shareholders must sign forms declaring that they have not been convicted since that date, and there is no time limit in the rulebook, so in theory any director convicted since then would be banned for life. As Gudmundsson's convictions following the collapse of the Hafskip shipping line were in 1991, his takeover looks certain to sail through.