West Ham United owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson is ready to push through the club's sale after receiving promising news over the Carlos Tevez bill.

The Independent says Gudmundsson is to push ahead with the sale of the club next year after being advised that the compensation to be paid to Sheffield United over the Carlos Tevez affair is unlikely to be more than £10m - a fifth of the total which was, at one time, demanded.

Advisers to the Icelandic businessman, whose finances have been devastated by the collapse of his country's economy, claimed yesterday that non-disclosure agreements had been signed with between "five and 10 parties" interested in buying the club.

There has been a handful of indicative bids but all have fallen far short of Gudmundsson's valuation of the club, revealed in court documents filed in Iceland by his holding company, Hansa, which has gone into voluntary liquidation, to be £250m. A more realistic figure is thought to be £150m.