Paywall for PAI

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 13th August 2021

The organisation behind a bid for West Ham United have released a new missive - behind a paywall.

PAI Capital launched their bid to buy West Ham a fortnight ago through former apprentice contestant Tom Skinner, before releasing a follow-up statement in which they cited Rio Ferdinand as a West Ham legend.

And on Friday morning an interview with the group was published but initially visible only to supporters who pay a monthly subscription fee to a fan channel - at the same time PAI were insisting how they "want to improve communications with the fans" as "many supporters have felt excluded in the past".




The interview, which has already been copied and posted elsewhere on social media tells the story of how Nasib Nizami Oglu Piriyev became to be a West Ham United supporter in the mid 1990s when West Ham "were mid-table in the league with Tony Cottee and Bilic leading".

Piriyez also discusses how PAI was formed in 2019 "with an amazing collection of individuals" during "hard times", while maintaining the group "work together well, like a family".

Explaining the group's main areas of expertise, he explains that PAI "select and invest in new ventures and raise capital from the markets" alongside "clients and investors from China and the Far East" and "the Middle East and Easter Europe" (Piriyev himself hails from Baku, the capital of and largest city in Azerbaijan).

He dismisses allegations of corruption by insisting that charges arrived "as a result of a state-sponsored corporate raid" while adding that "I cannot say too much here about this because the litigation is still ongoing".

With regards to the group's bid for West Ham, which constitutes the last half of the interview, Piriyev once again insists that PAI provided proof of funds despite David Sullivan claiming otherwise - "why would the club provide us access to their data room for two months?" he says.

Later he claims that, in the event of a successful takeover bid West Ham United FC would "become part of a larger set up which guarantees much more viable and sustainable development so we can compete at the Premier League's top six level every season" as part of a "larger development project".

Referring to "a natural synergy" between the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the the London Olympic Stadium and the club Piriyez believes "the club cannot reply on its traditional fanbase" and talks of "appealing to a new audience".

The group also pledge to push through a statue of "Hurst, Moore and Peters" as "we have to have our symbol outside our new fortress".

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