What's going on there? Their owner looks like being locked up/having his assets frozen, yet they're still attracting good players. The latest of which is Jonathan Spector on a free. Would love to see him at City - can play across the back 4 and in midfield. http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_7071065,00.html How are they doing it? Another Pompey?
Does my head in this, same with Portsmouth last year. How come we are the only club who, when financial difficulties occur, actually have to cut down on expensive signings, and these clubs can still sign premiership quality players?!
Dunno - it must be 'on a wing and a prayer'. Chris Hughton could well be shafted if it all collapses....!
The trial begins on August 11 & Birmingham City appear to be operating as normal, like what we saw with Pompey when they were facing administration, BCFC aren't facing this threat yet however. It could turn nasty for them however if his assets are seized by court order in Hong Kong he is found to have acquired the club with funds raised from criminal activities. He would lose his 23% (BBC says 26.3% other source says less than 20%) stake, the government would keep the money from the sale of the assets. His lawyer has said that the charges are "not related to Birmingham International Holdings", the parent company of BCFC and so doesn't affect them. Yeung is the largest single shareholder but doesn't have absolute control. So is the football club "his asset" or not then? it's not clear to me. The charges are tax evasion related and the figure given is £59m. If he loses this then they would be in trouble surely.
Some details I posted previously. http://www.not606.com/showthread.ph...fall-off-at-Birmingham?highlight=carson yeung
Part of the club is his asset, the rest of it belongs to other people. Now in general I might be missing something, but him and the club are seperate legal entities. If the club can function it will be allowed to do so, the seizure of his assets just means somebody will be trying to sell his stake in it. If I go and rob a bank and use the money to buy shares in Tesco, when I get caught they don't stop Tesco trading because my assets have been frozen, they take the shares and sell them to keep recoupp the money I stole. This might cause Birmingham cash flow issues if they're running at a loss, but equally the other shareholders might be prepared to put that money in to stop one shareholder's problems affecting all the shareholders' investments.
What i believed the situation to be about the shares was that Carson Yeung owned some then one of his other companies who helped ran who depend on him financially owned the rest, so although Birmingham can't be frozen as its not owned by Carson Yeung its owned by a separate company, withou Carson Yeung that company can not continue trading. Thats what i was led to believe.
But whatever the ownership structure, if Birmingham City are a going concern then whoever seizes all of Yeung's assets should keep it going and sell it without the club suffering as that's the way they'll get the most money for it. And they're about to receive the first parachute payment of the season, so that combined with the revenue they'll start getting now the season is starting should see them through long enough for them to be sold.
