Blues beat Barnsley 6-2 on Saturday as they shattered more records on their march to promotion from League One. The victory was the team’s 10th league victory in a row at home and took Blues to 92 points in the table; a total that has never been achieved before by Birmingham City.
One thing about you can say about Blues is that the more some things change, the more they stay the same. While the team might be on for a record points haul on the pitch and the financials off the pitch go from strength to strength, online it’s drama once again with Wembley tickets at the heart of it.
Tuesday night saw Stevenage become the latest team to fall to defeat by Chris Davies’ Birmingham City, with a late Jay Stansfield goal confirming Blues’ place in the last four of the Vertu Trophy. That goal extended the current unbeaten run to 18, the number of games this season to 59, with just one match standing between the club and a Wembley appearance.
A shock announcement on Thursday afternoon confirmed that Garry Cook has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham City. The 62-year-old from Acocks Green had been CEO since the Knighthead takeover in July 2023 and remains as both a member of the Club’s Advisory Committee and as trustee of the Birmingham City Foundation.
Birmingham City beat Swindon Town 2-1 on Tuesday night to progress into the last eight of the Vertu Trophy and keep their hopes alive of the League One double. An Ayumu Yokoyama goal as well as a Harry Smith own goal were enough to seal the victory for Chris Davies’ men and extend Blues’ unbeaten run to 13 games.
Blues go into the final match of 2024 in a good position in League One. Six consecutive league wins have put Chris Davies’ men top of the table with a game in hand, as well as the opportunity to break last year’s points total with less than half of the current season gone.
It’s cold as hell, the days are at their shortest and the kids have broken up for school. That can only mean one thing – the winter transfer window is almost upon us. Blues’ current league and financial position mean that for a change this could be a transfer window without stress and maybe even with a nice surprise for a change.
A group of Blues fans slept out in the concourse under the Gil Merrick stand on Saturday to raise money for the Birmingham City Foundation. The sleepout organised as part of the Blue Nose Day celebrations also saw the likes of Technical Director Craig Gardner, first team manager Chris Davies and Jeremy Dale commit to sleeping rough in the stand.
While ZO Future Group (as Birmingham Sports Holdings are now known) don’t have any operational or financial control over Birmingham City anymore, they are still duty bound to make announcements to the stock exchange of Hong Kong about various transactions. This is why on Thursday afternoon an announcement was made by ZFG to confirm that Shelby Companies Limited have doubled the loan facility available to the club to £100M.
The company formerly known as Birmingham Sports Holdings announced their financial results for the year ending 30 June 2024 to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. While ZO Future Group (as they’re now known) have zero financial or operational control over Birmingham City, they still have to cover the club’s financial results in their own accounts, allowing us an early glimpse into the club’s current financial position.
