With news breaking of a new takeover bid at Birmingham City, there have been questions from fans arising from the ongoing EFL investigation into Wang Yaohui (aka the elusive Mr King), and the issues it may cause a potential takeover.
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.
Birmingham Sports Holdings announced their latest accounts to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon. The accounts are for the year ending 30 June 2022 and correspond to the 2021/2022 football season for Blues. While the company once again made a loss, the amount BSH lost has been reduced, which will surely please investors.
It’s now been over eight weeks since Blues fans were told in a Birmingham Mail / Mirror report that the takeover was “close”. Despite being told in an announcement to the HKSE three weeks ago that Vong Pech had agreed to sell his share and a “deadline” being given by Bassini of June 30, as Blues fans we still await any official confirmation that any deal has been done.
Despite the best efforts of Millwall fans to storm the Kop on Saturday, I think the biggest Birmingham City news over the last few days has been rumours of the club being sold. While rumours of buyers making bids are always out there, this bit of gossip seemed to gain life of its own online.
Last week I visited Phnom Penh, Cambodia to attempt to understand and report more about the convoluted ownership of Birmingham City. While the appointment of Ian Dutton as Managing Director in Birmingham has bought some much needed change to the way the club Is being run on a day-to-day level, I wanted to learn more about the owners above him; who they are and what their intentions are.
Although the points differential between Blues and bottom three is still in double digits, it’s clear that there once again is a cloud of disheartenment surrounding Blues fans. Another poor performance in defeat to Middlesbrough has left some questioning the players and / or the manager while others are starting to wonder just how much needs to be done this summer to make things right at St Andrew’s.
While Birmingham City played out a draw with Hull City in the race to mediocrity in the Championship on Saturday, more uncertainty has been heaped on Chelsea in the Premier League following sanctions placed on their owner Roman Abramovich by the UK Government. Watching things unravel at Stamford Bridge has got a few Blues fans twitchy wondering if a Chinese atrocity akin to Russia invading Ukraine could put Blues in a similar boat.
Birmingham Sports Holdings Chairman and BCFC director Zhao Wenqing made his first public statement to Blues fans on Saturday, via the official bcfc.com website. The statement, which has seemingly come as a response to continued protest from Birmingham City fans sought to assuage fears surrounding the stadium and the ownership of the club.
Birmingham City crashed out of the FA Cup with barely a whimper on Saturday, losing 1-0 to League One side Plymouth Argyle. The final result might say that the Pilgrims won after extra time but the sad fact is a 4-0 scoreline in 90 minutes would not have flattered them. Yet the worst part of it all seems to be the number of Blues fans (including myself) who were just resigned to defeat and numb to the pain.
