Neither the Women’s Super League nor West Ham United women’s team were aware of the restrictions placed on David Sullivan interaction with the team, the Guardian has learned.

Sullivan, who is West Ham’s largest shareholder, has faced restrictions on his contact with the women’s team and their youth teams since 2023 because of a safeguarding investigation.

The Football Association opened an inquiry in the same year after receiving a complaint, which the Guardian understands was an allegation of sexual misconduct unrelated to football.

In a joint investigation by the BBC and the Times, seven women accused the 77-year-old of predatory behaviour, with alleged incidents dating back to the 1980s. Through his lawyers, Sullivan has said he denies the allegations.

Sources close to the playing squad at West Ham’s women’s side have said the team are appalled by the allegations, which they were not aware of before the story broke this week.

Separate sources, however, said that it would have been a breach of the local authority’s safeguarding regulations for the league, players or staff to be informed of the details of an ongoing safeguarding case.

A West Ham spokesperson said on Wednesday that the club had “clear and robust safeguarding measures in place, measures that are independently assessed and audited on an annual basis”, but the club could not comment on individual cases.

An FA spokesperson said: “We take all safeguarding allegations and concerns very seriously, and we investigate each case within our jurisdiction thoroughly.

“The aim of our process is to safeguard children and adults at risk, and we are unable to comment on individual safeguarding matters, including cases that remain active.”

Sullivan resigned as a West Ham director and co-chair of the recently relegated men’s Championship club before the publication of the claims about his conduct.

Sullivan has never been listed as a director of West Ham United Women Football Club Limited on Companies House. His son, Jack Sullivan, was a director of the women’s club’s company between November 2017 and May 2021 and was the focus of a behind the scenes BBC documentary that followed the women’s team’s progress, titled Britain’s youngest football boss, in 2018.

West Ham finished 10th in this season’s WSL, a division run independently by WSL Football since 2024 after leaving the FA, which had organised the division since 2011.

David Sullivan said in a statement on Wednesday: “I wish to clarify recent media reports regarding a negotiated agreement with the FA, which has been inaccurately described as a disciplinary ‘ban’. In my entire 16 years at [West Ham], I have never met any academy or women’s team players [one to one], therefore a negotiated and temporary agreement with the FA not to do so until the FA resolved an outstanding complaint in relation to a single anonymous complaint regarding an event in 1981 was entered into.

“The complaint had nothing to do [with] my time in football and it never happened. I saw it as a meaningless restriction, as it didn’t impact on my work in any way, therefore I accepted it for a quiet life.”