​Amanda Staveley sat inside London Stadium on Tuesday night to watch West Ham United beat Wolves 4-2 in the Championship, a low-key evening on the surface that carried real significance for the club’s future. The prospective owner was invited by co-chair Vanessa Gold as the clock runs down on a deadline that could reshape who controls West Ham.In July, Gold confirmed she had agreed to sell her entire 25.1% stake in the club to Staveley in a deal that valued West Ham at £600m. It followed an earlier agreement in which Gold had lined up a partial sale of her stake to fellow co-chair Daniel Kretinsky.West Ham’s ownership structure includes pre-emption rights, meaning any deal agreed with an outside investor has to be offered first to the club’s existing significant shareholders, on the same terms and on a pro-rata basis. Those shareholders get first refusal, and are then given the chance to buy any shares that remain, subject to a further deadline of their own. The initial 30-day window for shareholders to act on Gold’s stake runs out this week, and it remains unclear how the situation will resolve.West Ham’s largest shareholder is David Sullivan, who holds 38.8% of the club. Sullivan stepped down as co-chair in June and has said he intends to fight allegations made against him in a joint investigation by BBC Panorama and The Times. Kretinsky owns 27%, though he announced last month that he is selling just over 2% of his holding to Czech businessman Jakub Havrlant.That sale could prove decisive. It would let Kretinsky buy all of Gold’s shares without his overall stake crossing 50%, a threshold that would otherwise trigger a separate clause forcing him to make an automatic offer for the rest of the club, on terms that would not favor him.Sources with knowledge of the situation have told the BBC that Sullivan is not expected to try to increase his own shareholding while the Football Regulator is still assessing his suitability to remain a shareholder at the club. It also remains uncertain whether Kretinsky’s planned sale of a stake to Havrlant could face a legal challenge, as it would allow him to sidestep the requirement to buy the entire club outright.How Gold Ended Up With a Stake to SellVanessa Gold’s position in this saga traces back to her father, David Gold, who bought into West Ham alongside Sullivan in January 2010, when the pair acquired a 50% share in the club and took on operational and commercial control at a valuation of £105m. Their combined stake grew over the following years, reaching 60% by the middle of 2010 and eventually 30.6% each after further purchases from previous owners CB Holdings. Sullivan added another 25% from CB Holdings in 2013.David Gold died in January 2023 at the age of 86, and his shareholding passed to his daughter Vanessa through the family trust. Kretinsky had already bought his 27% stake in November 2021, completing the three-way ownership structure that has defined the club for the past few ye