One of the biggest talking points in English football in recent days is the so-called “Project Big Picture”. First revealed in an exclusive by Sam Wallace in the Telegraph, the plan formulated by EFL Chairman Rick Parry along with Liverpool investor John W Henry, Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward along with others has been controversial to say the least. What effect does it have on Birmingham City?
Following news breaking on Friday regarding a sale of a slice of Birmingham City to Chinese-born Cambodian businessman Vong Pech, there have been many questions online about the purchaser’s identity. Who is Vong Pech, how much money does he have and why does he want to buy this stake in the club?
Birmingham Sports Holdings broke the news on Friday afternoon that they are proposing to sell a 25% stake in BCFC to Oriental Rainbow Investment Ltd, a British Virgin Islands investment vehicle owned by current BSH shareholder Vong Pech. The deal will see Vong Pech become the largest shareholder in the club among other changes.
Birmingham Sports Holdings released their accounts for the year ending June 30, 2020 on Wednesday afternoon. The results confirmed that once again the company had made a loss – although not as great as in previous years. However, coronavirus has clearly had an impact with massively increased borrowing.
On Friday Birmingham City filed details of two charges with Companies House, outlining forward financing of payments relating to the Che Adams transfer to Southampton and the Jude Bellingham transfer to Borussia Dortmund. A total of £18M has been used as security for the charges, which show Macquarie Bank’s London branch as the lender.
Plans to allow limited numbers of fans back into stadiums were put on hold on Tuesday as the Government tightened restrictions to prevent the transmission of coronavirus in England. This has dealt a hammer blow to clubs already suffering financially from the lack of gate revenue and adds more worry to fans concerned with how their clubs will cope.
Scott Hogan became the eighth signing of the summer for Birmingham City on Wednesday, arriving on a four year deal from the wrong side of the expressway. Hogan played 18 games on loan at Blues last season, scoring seven goals. With a month or so left of the transfer window, the question now is if Blues need to bring any more players in.
Blues started the 2020/21 Championship season the same way they began the previous one; leaving Brentford manager Thomas Frank angry after beating his side 1-0 with a well-worked header. While there was almost certainly an element of luck in the victory at Griffin Park under Pep Clotet, this season’s curtain-raiser was much more deserved.
A 1-0 defeat to Cambridge United in the Carabao Cup on Saturday meant Aitor Karanka got off to a losing start as Blues Head Coach. With a week until the Championship campaign starts, Karanka has to pick his charges back up and encourage them to believe that they can win.
What started off tentatively with a gif in response to a question from grime star Jaykae seems to have morphed into a semblance of communication from the powers that be. Although it’s still not much more than gifs right now, Blues CEO Ren Xuandong took the time out of his day on Bank Holiday Monday to get new signing George Friend to pass on a nice message to a Blues fan stuck in hospital.
