It is a sign of the times that the immediate future of West Ham United will be decided not in E13 but during a bankruptcy hearing in Reykjavik municipal court. Even if things go to plan today for the club's beleaguered Icelandic parent company, Hansa, and its lawyers manage to secure another three months' breathing space from creditors, it will be the last such deal they can strike. That would require them to sell the club by June, leaving only a narrow window between the end of the season and the new deadline.

Things may have improved on the pitch of late under Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke, but the club's future remains uncertain off it. Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, who held a 41% stake in the stricken Icelandic bank Landsbanki that has since been nationalised, was unusual among those badly burned by the collapse of the economy in his homeland in that many of his investments were in his nativecountry.

West Ham were the exception and, when he paid £85m for them in 2006, it was considered something of a rich man's toy in his homeland. Ironically, it is now the only asset staving off bankruptcy for Hansa. For Gudmundsson, the situation appears dire. For West Ham, there is still hope – provided he can find a buyer in a difficult market.

The court must balance two competing forces. Logic dictates it would be unwise to force Hansa into a fire sale of West Ham at a knock-down price, because creditors would be unlikely to get a decent return, especially as the club's debt to its own banks of around £40m would have to be paid first. But it will also want to pressure Gudmundsson to speed up the process.

With Hansa in administration, court documents from the last hearing in December stated it owed more than 19.5bn Icelandic kronur (£120m) to creditors with no obvious means of paying them back beyond a share swap and selling its main asset – West Ham Holding. Reports in Iceland have put the true debt figure at closer to 38bn kronur (£238m). In December, the company won a three-month payment cessation despite the insistence of MP Bank, one of its creditors, that it would be plunged into bankruptcy.

The club's owners are confident of securing another extension to the repayment cessation granted in December, when it argued that it would have a better chance of meeting its debt obligations if it was given the breathing space to conduct an orderly sale of the east London club.

Then the court rejected the arguments of MP Bank, which is owed 5.4% of the total debt, because other creditors, many of which have a connection to Gudmundsson, agreed to give Hansa more time to sell West Ham. Following a recent meeting of creditors, MP Bank reiterated its opposition. Hansa's lawyers will have to show that serious progress is being made towards a sale. Yet even if the court did force Hansa into bankruptcy, West Ham executives are convinced the football subsidiary could avoid being placed into administration.

Asgeir Fridgeirsson, a longtime associate of Gudmundsson's who is now West Ham's vice-chairman, promised this week the outcome of the case would have no impact on the club. "Hansa believes that the progress that the club has been making shows the importance of continued stability," said Fridgeirsson. "There are alternatives and options. It will in no way affect the club." Gudmundsson is not putting any more money into West Ham but its banks are understood to be willing to continue to extend credit at least until the summer. If there is no obvious progress by then, their stance could harden too.

Meanwhile, the sale process overseen by Standard Bank continues. In December, it sent data on its debt levels, income, expenditure and salary ratios to potential buyers. The club is believed to have signed five non-disclosure agreements with interested parties but none has yet progressed to full due diligence. The stand-off may last until the summer, with prospective purchasers waiting for Gudmundsson to drop the price as the sale deadline nears.

They are also waiting for one other sizeable question to be resolved. The outcome of the tortuous Carlos Tevez affair, and with it the possibility of the club having to pay up to £45m in compensation to Sheffield United, will become clearer this month. The arbitration panel chaired by Lord Griffiths that found in favour of Sheffield United will reconvene on 16 March to decide on the level of compensation. The Yorkshire club has claimed up to £45m in lost revenues, although West Ham will claim the true figure is less than £5m. If the settlement is sizeable, it will further hasten the need for an urgent sale. Meanwhile, a joint FA and Premier League investigation into Griffiths' concerns about West Ham's conduct rumbles on.

Whatever the outcome of today's hearing, a Premier League spokesman confirmed that any points deduction would only apply if West Ham United plc, itself a subsidiary of West Ham Holding Ltd, was plunged into insolvency. Any bankruptcy ruling against Hansa would not automatically invoke a nine-point penalty. However, if Gudmundsson himself were later to be declared bankrupt, under the Premier League's fit and proper persons test, he would be forced to stand down as a director and sell down his stake to less than 30%.

Club insiders argue that in many ways it is in better shape than it was 12 months ago. Things are looking up on the pitch, with European qualification a genuine possibility. Despite fevered speculation, the club was able to negotiate the choppy waters of the January transfer window.. in which only Only Craig Bellamy was sold, at a good profit, and other key players were tied to new contracts. "The club continues to function well as a going concern," said a West Ham spokesman. "We're very pleased with the progress we've made this season.".

But City sources say the hoped-for £250m sale price quoted by Hansa in Icelandic court documents in December is "highly unrealistic" in the current climate. That was based on the £230m paid for Manchester City plus a premium because the club is based in London. According to the court papers, Hansa told MP Bank that West Ham was worth "at least £200m". In a buyer's market where a clutch of other Premier League teams of a similar size are also open to offers, Gudmundsson may have to settle for less than half that figure.

But assuming he and his executives make good on their promise to insulate West Ham from the fallout, there is still light at the end of a tunnel. The big fear for West Ham fans, who will not much care how much Gudmundsson raises as long as he finds a buyer, will be that the once seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of prospective Premier League club owners will come to a juddering halt.