Martin William Cearns (April 1945 – May 2024) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

executive who was chairman of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

Life and career

Cearns was born in April 1945. A bank manager with

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, Cearns became a board member with West Ham taking over the chairmanship in 1990 from his father, Len Cearns. He held the position until 1992 when it was taken over by Terry Brown. Although no longer chairman, Cearns remained on the board until 1 December 2006 when he resigned when the club was sold to Icelandic billionaire,

Björgólfur Guðmundsson Björgólfur Guðmundsson (2 January 1941 – 2 February 2025) was an Icelandic businessman and chairman and owner of West Ham United. Björgólfur was Iceland's second businessman to be worth more than a billion dollars — his son, Björgólf ...

for £85 million. As part of the takeover he made £7.76 million from the sale of his 1,844,000 shares in West Ham. Cearns' time at West Ham is remembered for his advocacy, with

Peter Storrie Peter Storrie (born 7 November 1952) is a football chief executive. He was also a former director and chief executive officer of English team Portsmouth, and had formerly worked for West Ham United, Southend United and Notts County. Clubs involv ...

, of the Hammers Bond scheme, a financial bond which West Ham fans would have been forced to buy before being allowed to purchase a

season ticket A season ticket, or season pass, is a ticket that grants privileges over a defined period of time. History The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has illustrative quotations which show the term ''season ticket'' used in the United States in 18 ...

. The proposal led to demonstrations both inside and outside West Ham's ground and to

pitch invasion A pitch invasion (also known as field storming, rushing the field or rushing the court) occurs when a person or a crowd of people spectating a sporting event run onto the competition area, usually to celebrate or protest an incident, or somet ...

s. West Ham announced Cearns' death on 7 May 2024, at the age of 79.

References

1945 births 2024 deaths English businesspeople West Ham United F.C. directors and chairmen English football chairmen and investors People educated at Felsted School {{England-footy-bio-stub