Saturday felt like a familiar kick in the teeth as a Birmingham City fan. Against West Bromwich Albion it felt like hope and belief was returning to the team but two successive poor defeats to struggling opposition has once again brought the anguished and pessimistic to share their despair online.
With both the previous Maxco bid and the current Often Partisan Limited offer for the club, there is a long drawn-out multi-stage process to complete the deal. Part of the issue is a two-year period put in place for Birmingham Sports Holdings to find another company to replace the club in the group, before finally relinquishing control.
For the first time in nearly two years, Birmingham City came from a losing position to win a game. A 90th minute equaliser from Lukas Jutkiewicz and an injury time winner from Auston Trusty ensured won 4-3 at Swansea, snapping a five-match losing streak. Off the pitch however, the shenanigans of the last few years don’t seem to be ending any time soon.
On Friday afternoon Matt Slater of the Athletic reported that Jeremy Dale was the front man for a consortium holding talks with Birmingham City for what was described as an investment deal.
Birmingham City released a statement on Wednesday evening confirming that talks had been initiated between a shareholder and a third party over an investment in both St Andrew’s Stadium and the club.
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.
