Kevin McCabe: West Ham deal was generous. We stopped them going belly up
Kevin McCabe talks to Henry Winter about the Carlos Tévez affair and the civil war engulfing Sheffield United before the London club’s visit
Kevin McCabe can handle a few West Ham United-supporting London cabbies asking him to leave their vehicles when they recognise the chairman of Sheffield United during the Carlos Tévez affair. McCabe can deal with the abusive letters received when his club won £21 million in compensation from West Ham for breaching Premier League rules over third-party ownership over Tévez and Javier Mascherano. Because McCabe knows he could have put West Ham out of business.
Sheffield United meet West Ham in the Premier League today for the first time since the Tévez affair of 2007, meeting only once since in the League Cup at Upton Park in 2014. West Ham fans have promised to wear Tévez masks, celebrating how they stayed up in 2007 and Sheffield United went down. “That’s banter between supporters,” McCabe smiles. “That doesn’t bother me at all.”
He took the threats in his stride. “Oh, gosh yes! Many! It didn’t go beyond abusive letters. I had one or two cabbies who threw me out the cab at the time, told me to get out. I think that’s gone. I’ve met a good few West Ham fans and explained the background.”
McCabe is sanguine now, sitting in the boardroom of his property empire in Knightsbridge, London, but 12 years ago, because of West Ham’s perfidy, McCabe’s steeliness was tested to the limit. “I had to pick people up off the floor. I got all the staff in a room at the stadium and at the academy to boost morale.
“We lost players because we couldn’t afford it. Everton were aware of the condition in Phil Jagielka’s contract [that he was available for £4 million if United got relegated]. Neil Warnock left. Then it was determining what to do and that was fight it. I don’t walk away.
“The scars have healed but we should never have been relegated. We’d done nothing wrong. West Ham broke the rules.
“I had no animosity to West Ham as a club. In London, with respect, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea are upper crust. West Ham are like the Blades, working class. What happened was an incident caused by [Icelandic] owners rather than the club itself. What happened was immoral, illegal, and we caught the cold. When we won the tribunal case against West Ham, it was left to the two parties to sort out compensation or the arbitration panel would determine compensation.”
That could have cost West Ham up to £50 million, “to be paid within 14 days”, McCabe recalls. “But the last thing we wanted to do was damage West Ham at a time when the financial crisis had kicked in, when the Icelandic owner of West Ham had actually gone bankrupt.”
Sheffield United agreed £21 million to be paid over four years. “If we’d gone for broke, we could have put them into liquidation,” McCabe says. “The deal we struck was very generous to ensure West Ham would survive. The compensation helped us a little bit but nothing like 12 years’ loss of getting back to where we shouldn’t have been relegated from. But there’s no way we wanted West Ham to go belly up. Clubs underpin cities. United and Wednesday are vital to Sheffield. Leeds United are vital to Leeds. They’re part of what the fabric of our society is about.”
Sheffield United’s grievance also lay with the Premier League, then under Richard Scudamore as chief executive and Sir Dave Richards as chairman, which failed to impose a points deduction. “A lot of the blame, more than 50 per cent, was at the door of the Premier League itself,” McCabe adds. “Going back over some of the correspondence with Dave Richards, this pisses me off.
“It was clear-cut that the Premier League were going to deduct points. I’ve got a lot of time for Scudamore, brilliant guy. I’ve seen Richards [a former Sheffield Wednesday chairman] at functions in Sheffield. I asked for an apology. I maybe had muttered apologies. Richard Caborn is a mate of mine, he was Minister for Sport, he didn’t want to know. The FA?! Blazers! Society was against what we were doing to try and pursue football justice. The football fraternity didn’t want to know. Dave Whelan was sort of supportive. Graham Taylor supported us.”
Otherwise United were alone. “I only came across two people in boardrooms [back then] who impressed me, who taught me something. One was David Dein, the driving force behind Arsenal, who gave me inspiration by his dynamism. The other was David Sheepshanks at Ipswich Town. The others, the blazer-type chairmen or directors, were very unimpressive.’
It’s been a long road back. “We got stuck in League One, play-offs, had [ten] different managers. It took a lot of getting back and my gratitude is to the skills of Chris Wilder,” McCabe says. “Even though when he came on board, I got supporters in my ear when we got off to a bad start, saying, ‘Tha’s picked another one, McCabe, get rid of him now.’
“Chris has effervescence, energy and desire but the real key word is he’s instinctive. Warnock would set out not to lose. Chris sets out to win. Neil’s not got Chris’s wisdom. He’s top class. Chris probably learnt from Dave Bassett about blowing his top at players at times. Chris will give Dean [Henderson, the goalkeeper] a bollocking and two minutes later will have him in for a cup of tea. He balances it. He’s chosen [players] well. We’ve not spent that much. We’ve got valuable players now.”
And a valued assistant manager. “Alan Knill complements Chris,” McCabe says. “Alan’s a very sensible guy, he can calm Chris. Great combination. Chris and Alan are a bit like Brian Clough and Peter Taylor; friends but not out every night, wining and dining as families.”
So when they steered United into the Premier League in May, it was a special moment for McCabe. “I didn’t get Brahms and Liszt, skipping down the street. There was just satisfaction that I’d got them back,” he says. “I’ve put in over £100 million, a lot over. I go back a long way with the club. My background was tin bath and bread and dripping, we lived around the corner from the stadium. On Saturdays, there was nowt to do. My dad first took me to Bramall Lane when I was four. He took me to reserve games: 15,000 there with flat caps and little lads on their shoulders.
“The team of 1971 when we got to the old First Division were my heroes. It’s the most exciting I’ve seen. Alan Woodward! Tony Currie! Len Badger! Alan Hodgkinson! I was married on the day we returned for the first match [in the top division in 1971]. We beat Southampton [3-1] at home. We took our first flight to Ibiza and I missed five bloody games on honeymoon. I’ve always cursed my wife! I had a telex machine to update me on goals.”
All the while, McCabe was building his real-estate business. “I got to be known as ‘the lad with some brass in his pocket’, so I was asked to sponsor a game, joined the board. Being a true Sheffield United supporter I always resented — perhaps too strong a word — that Hillsborough had been developed via a grant for the 1966 World Cup. Bramall Lane was a tatty old ground. I’m a real estate guy. I’d planned out a vision of how I wanted it to be. It’s making Bramall Lane better than Hillsborough. And we’re the home of football. I’ve talked to the council. We need a big stainless steel football on the M1, bit like the Angel of the North.”
Exiled from the elite, after the Tévez affair, United were haemorrhaging £10 million a year at one point, which is why their astute player development and shrewd insertion of sell-on clauses helped. “When Kyle Walker went from Tottenham to Man City [for £45 million in 2017] we got £7 million out of that,” McCabe says. “When [Harry] Maguire went from Hull to Leicester [for £17 million in 2017] we got another £1 million. We sold [David] Brooks for £10 million [to Bournemouth in 2018].’
McCabe loves the club with a passion but finds his grip weakened immeasurably. Keen to follow the “Manchester City model” and bring in a wealthy backer, McCabe sold 50 per cent of the club to Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Saudi royal family, but they gradually fell out, with unedifying comments on both sides. This year, to his horror, McCabe was ordered by the High Court to sell Prince Abdullah the remaining 50 per cent under the stipulation of the original agreement. “To us, it’s a travesty of justice,” McCabe says. “There is one family who’s gone through thick and thin with Sheffield United, and we feel cheated out of an owner’s position of losing 50 per cent of the football club.”
McCabe has until November 4 to submit his appeal. “It could take two years from now, six months before we know the application to appeal has been granted and 18 months or so for the appeal to be concluded, hopefully successfully,” he says. “Look, I’m strong. My real problem was my family. I have a grandson who’s even more keen on the Blades than I am. He doesn’t know quite which way to turn; he was used to going to the game every other week at Bramall Lane, now it’s something he can’t do. I don’t bear any hostility to Abdullah. I can still talk to him now, he has good humour, loves football and he does watch Sheffield United but mainly on screen.”
Under the agreement, Prince Abdullah has to purchase Bramall Lane and the training ground from McCabe for £50 million. “We’ve still not been paid for the real estate,” McCabe adds, “and will have to sue Sheffield United next year if they don’t pay for property. And we don’t want to do that. A lot of people know me from schooldays, they’re supporters, I’m a supporter. There is camaraderie — and insults as well — that persists with a local lad who owns the club. ‘Now then, Kev, how’s tha’ keeping?’ Some will say ‘Chairman’. You can’t replace [that connection] as you come on board as a foreigner. There’s jealousy and envy.
“I’ve known Billy Sharp [the United striker] since he was knee-high, I used to text him when he left us, playing for Donny Rovers. You build a relationship with people. When I went to the team hotel on Monday [before the home win over Arsenal], I had the players come across to me, they still call me ‘Chairman’. I’ve known 1,000 players at Sheffield United. I must have gone to 1,000 games since I was a nipper.”
The loss of the opportunity to hand on the club to his sons, Simon and Scott, does not actually worry him. “No, it’s too big a headache. Do I regret my association with the club? Part of me does. It’s an arduous task. I get letters all the time, asking for help and making complaints. It’s non-stop the things I’ve had to deal with.” He winces at the memory of the ‘Battle of Bramall Lane’ against West Brom in 2002 when three of Warnock’s players were dismissed and the match abandoned. “I was going to sack Warnock, until I saw you lot [reporters] on TV in those days with Jimmy Hill [on Sky], all sitting around, saying, ‘Sheffield United should be relegated.’ I said to myself, ‘I ain’t going to sack Warnock, am I now!’ ”
“Or the Ched Evans affair [the rape allegation], or getting calls in the morning about a [different] player in Halifax jail, or the silly lass [Sophie Jones] sent off against Tottenham and probably made an exception of because she was the first girl to be accused of racist abuse [against Spurs’ Renee Hector].”
McCabe is determined to fight Prince Abdullah for control of Sheffield United. “The club’s under the wrong ownership. He’s put a 22-year-old in charge as chairman, his son-in-law [Prince Musa’ad bin Khalid bin Abdulrahman Al Saud]. The young prince, when he gets to Sheffield, and the fans say, ‘Put your fooking hand in pocket,’ will not know what’s hit him. We are a working-class club and that’s said with pride.”
He’s tried to shield Wilder from the civil war. “He joined Sheffield United. He joined myself. I had a long telephone call with Chris the day after the [court] decision, because he asked what happens next? I said, ‘Don’t worry about me, just keep this club up.’ I think he’ll keep us up.”
McCabe won’t be there watching Wilder’s team today. “Sheffield United won’t give me tickets. That’s who we’re dealing with. But I’m a tough old dog. It’s never affected my health. I still play squash every week. I’ll be playing on Friday thinking that ball is Abdullah’s head! I jest! I’m a working-class lad from down the street and their sticks and stones don’t bother me. Go back to the Tévez affair — I didn’t quit.”
