BCFC: 2020-21 Accounts Analysis – Bellingham the Saviour

The accounts for Birmingham City’s 2020/21 season were published on the Companies House website on Tuesday. The accounts make for some grim reading thanks to the restrictions placed upon the club by the Covid pandemic and confirm just how important the sale of Jude Bellingham was to the continued existence of the club.

Where’s The Money Gone: Dong

Last year I started to take a look back into the recent past of Birmingham City to try to understand just why the club is in the shape it is in now. The third article in this series examines the tenure of the club’s former CEO Ren Xuandong to try and understand better some of the mistakes that were made in the past and just how the club can prevent making them in the future.

Where’s the Money Gone: St Andrew’s

The second article in my series looking at where Birmingham City have spent money in recent years focuses on St Andrew’s stadium. The stadium has been the centre of news throughout most of the current regime’s tenure due to the sale of the stadium to Birmingham City Stadium Ltd to get around P&S rules; the closure and partial reopening of the Tilton and Kop stands due to structural issues and the ground share deal with Coventry City FC.

Where’s The Money Gone: The Cornella Connection

In October 2017, it was reported that Birmingham City had entered into a strategic partnership deal with Unio Esportiva Cornella, a team playing in the Spanish third tier. In this first article of a series looking back at the way the current regime have run Blues, I’ve taken a look at what that partnership did for Blues – and at what cost.

BCFC: Positive Additions

The lack of new CEO at Birmingham City since the resignation of Ren Xuandong in May has left some fans concerned to the direction of the club. Despite being an unpopular figure with many, Ren was a visible face of the board and his departure has meant that for some it’s much harder to understand what is going on. However, I believe it’s not Ren’s replacement people should be looking at.

BSH: Debt Transactions

With the football season pretty much over, I wanted to turn my attention back to the ownership of Birmingham City. Although the departure of Ren Xuandong from his roles as CEO and Director of the club has been welcomed almost universally by Blues fans, I think there are still some reservations over how the ownership of the club will run the club going forward.

BCFC: Replacing Dong

Less than 72 hours after the Championship season ended, Birmingham City announced that embattled CEO Ren Xuandong was to step down from his role with immediate effect. The immediate reaction online from Blues fans was of one of almost universal happiness that Ren is gone from the club.

BCFC: Dong and Shayne

As the old cliché goes, a week is a long time in football. That’s certainly the case at Birmingham City, where there seems to be positivity in the air despite a 3-0 defeat to Watford on Saturday. Although Blues remain just three points above Rotherham in 22nd having played four games more, there seems to be a feeling that Blues can get out of this that wasn’t there last Saturday.

Editorial: Occam’s Razor

72 hours waiting for 21 words. Just over three days after Birmingham City rolled over and had their tummies tickled by Bristol City, Aitor Karanka’s reign as Birmingham City came to an end. No “thank you”, no “good luck” – just a terse two sentences confirming the Spaniard had exited the building.

BCFC: One Down, One to Go

Based on results alone, it seems inevitable that the reign of Aitor Karanka had to come to an end. While it’s not been confirmed at the time of writing, practically every outlet has reported that the 47-year-old Basque has departed Blues. So what next?