Happy Easter

By: Daryl | March 23rd, 2008

Eggert Magnusson Happy Easter Offsiders. And what better way to celebrate than by reminiscing about Eggert Magnússon? The Icelandic businessman (he’s a former biscuit importer/exporter) was the public face of a consortium that took over West Ham in November 2006, and was installed as chairman. Magnússon inherited all kinds of problems at Upton Park, not least of which was the bizarre deal bringing Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano – and a world of trouble – to the club.

With relegation looming, Magnússon made the bold but unpopular decision to replace Alan Pardew with Alan Curbishley. It brought one immediate result, a win over Man Utd, but then things continued to get worse. Eventually Curbishley (and Carlitos) somehow turned things around and West Ham narrowly (and very, very controversially) avoided relegation.

Still, big billionaire boss Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson (the second richest man in Iceland, the first richest being his son) was unhappy with the financial situation at West Ham. So in September 2007 Magnússon was demoted from executive chairman to non-executive chairman, which basically means “you have no power.” By December Gudmundsson had bought out Magnússon’s shares in the club and sent him back to Iceland.

All in all, an unhappy spell in English football for Eggert Magnússon. But it’s worth pointing out that he’s more than just a businessman with a funny name and a funny shaped head. Magnússon is a genuine football man. He served as President of the Icelandic Football Association, and was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee in 2002.

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Category: World Football

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Hallgrimur P.

Eggert Magnusson was never a successful businessman. Not in Iceland, not anywhere. He is not a "wealthy owner of a business factory". He is just a hired (and now fired) hand. However, he certainly was the chairman of the Icelandic Football association. There, he managed to move Iceland from #45 down to #100 on the Fifa list of best national teams. He fired a succesful coach to try out a hopeless friend of his - and then another - and then another. I felt sorry for my favourite club, West Ham United, when Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson planted this guy in yet another position he can't manage. Luckily, he changed his mind. Congratulations, Hammers, on getting rit of him before it's too late.