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.
Once upon a time the only mention in a national newspaper of a match between Birmingham City and Wrexham in the third tier of English football would be to report the score. However, times have changed and tonight’s game is potentially the most reportable game in the whole EFL this season.
The last month has been a wild ride for Birmingham City fans. While Blues had to suffer the ignominious fate of being relegated to League One, the ambition of Knighthead to equip the squad with the best players possible remained front and centre with the hugely ambitious capture of Jay Stansfield on a permanent deal from Fulham.
Birmingham City got their League One campaign off to a start with a 1-1 draw with Reading at St Andrew’s on Saturday. A late penalty scored by Alfie May rescued a point for a Blues team that struggled to create clear cut chances despite having the lion’s share of possession.
