Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves shared a post on LinkedIn on Monday afternoon confirming her meeting with Knighthead chief Tom Wagner at HM Treasury to discuss the American hedge fund’s plans for the Birmingham Sports Quarter.
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.
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.
The last week or so has been incredibly busy for Blues; a new manager has been appointed, season ticket prices have been confirmed and the new first team kit has been launched. While all of this noise is going on in the foreground, the new financial reality of League One continues to govern just what Knighthead and Blues need to do to remain in the black and on the right side of the rules.
With the football season now over for Birmingham City, the focus has turned to the summer ahead and the challenges to come in the transfer window. Relegation means that Blues have a whole new set of financial rules to comply with which focus on a different methodology of levelling the financial playing field.
On Thursday afternoon, ZO Future Group (formerly known as Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd) announced their interim accounts to the stock exchange of Hong Kong, for the six month period ending December 31, 2023.
Transfer deadline day was a quiet one for Birmingham City with only Alex Pritchard signing and three young players departing. Indeed, for some Blues fans the biggest successes of the window were ensuring that Jordan James and Jay Stansfield remained with the club until the summer at least.
