Saturday saw another dispirited display from Birmingham City on the pitch continuing what is an alarming slump in form. Off the pitch, anger started to boil over from fans with many confronting the directors area to demand Hong Kong parent company Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd sells the club.
A heavy 4-2 defeat to Bristol City on Saturday has left Birmingham City not only 18th in the Championship table, but has massively increased concerns of relegation among some fans. This lack of form coupled with the collapse of the Maxco “takeover” and news from the far east that BSHL do not wish to sell has in turn caused the idea of protest to once again be spoken out loud.
Birmingham Sports Holdings held their annual general meeting on Friday 30 December at the United Centre in Admiralty, Hong Kong. As a shareholder in the company, I flew to Hong Kong to attend the meeting to ask questions about whether BSH were looking to sell their 75% stake in Birmingham City plc.
Birmingham City came down to earth with a bump on Tuesday evening following a 3-0 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor. Victory would have seen John Eustace’s men climb to fifth in the table; however the loss means that Blues lie in 15th place at the bottom of a pack of 11 teams separated by just three points.
Both Birmingham City and Hong Kong parent company Birmingham Sports Holdings released statements on Wednesday confirming the end to negotiations with Maxco Capital Ltd. Both of the statements made took a somewhat “bitter ex” theme, with the wording suggesting it was incumbent owners who terminated talks rather than Maxco.
With Jude Bellingham once again turning it on for England in the round of 16 World Cup match against Senegal, it’s somewhat deflating to turn attention back to the never-ending saga that is Birmingham City’s ownership travails.
News broke on Friday afternoon that 136 days after holding a conference on the Kop Car Park to tell fans the deal was done, Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez have pulled out from their attempt to buy Birmingham City.
It wasn’t exactly a full chamber when Shabana Mahmood MP talked about the travails surrounding the ownership of Birmingham City in the House of Commons on Monday night, but hopefully it will be another step on the journey to better regulation in football.
The takeover saga at Birmingham City took another twist on Monday morning with a report in the Daily Mail that “cryptocurrency businessman” Haydn Snape of the Dubai-based Decentralised Investment Group was a new backer within the Maxco consortium led by Maxi Lopez and Paul Richardson. This was followed by a further report from the Mirror that Snape was merely a conduit to American real estate magnate Michael Fuchs.
For the first time in a long time, hope has a home at St Andrew’s. A good 2-0 win against Queens Park Rangers on Friday elevated Blues into the top half of the table and has got some supporters dreaming of a top six position come the end of the season. While the playoffs are still realistically some way off, things definitely look to be brightening up for Birmingham City.
