Football billionaire David Sullivan is accused of abusing young women

BBC and The Times reported on Monday that seven women are accusing Sullivan of sexual harassment.

Sullivan owned from 1986 to 2007 Daily Sport- and Sunday Sport -newspapers. In addition to sports news, the magazine’s content consisted of underwear photos of female models.

The BBC and The Times interviewed seven women who said Sullivan pressured them into sex in exchange for modeling jobs.

Sullivan denies the allegations. He says that he resigned from the position of chairman in order to focus on refuting the accusations.

Women’s according to Sullivan acted in the same way for years. He invited the models to his mansion and met them in his office.

The billionaire asked women to strip down to their underwear to assess their suitability for the pages of his magazine. Sullivan then asked the women for sex and said he would advance their careers if they became his “special friends.”

Most of the women were around 20 years old. The woman appearing in the news as Florence says that she was alarmed by Sullivan’s proposal and that she tried to refuse, among other things, by saying that she was on her period.

Sullivan still guided Florence to his bedroom and began intercourse.

“I’m 99.999999% sure that I said “I don’t want to”. I don’t know if it was a whisper. At least I didn’t shout,” the woman says.

According to the women, there was a significant power imbalance between the billionaire and the young women. Several women report that they suffered from suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems after the incidents.

The woman appearing in the story as Rebecca says that she was especially vulnerable to Sullivan’s pressure because she had suffered, among other things, sexual trauma earlier in her youth.

“Meeting Sullivan began a long, dark and lonely period in my life.”

Sullivan has told the British media frankly about his sex life over the years. Among other things, he has said that he had sex with about a thousand women in one year.

“I’ve always said that what’s the point of owning a candy store if you can’t eat a few candies yourself,” the BBC reports Sullivan as saying to The Guardian.

Sullivan has admitted to buying sex from a girl he believed to be 16 or 17 years old in the 1990s. Buying sex from 16-17 year olds has been illegal in Britain since 2003.

Sullivan has been the principal owner of West Ham since 2010. In the 2025-2026 season, West Ham finished 18th in the Premier League and was relegated to the English Championship.