Birmingham City extend hand of friendship to West Ham United
Feb 9 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
Peter Pannu
After Yeung bought Blues in an £81.5 million deal – Sullivan, David and Ralph Gold made around £55 million – problems began to stack up for the Hong Kong tycoon.
It was claimed Blues were left with liabilities totalling around £11 million, and Yeung was furious that Sullivan and David Gold paid themselves a combined consultancy fee advance of £420,000 before leaving.
Brady was awarded an astonishing £1 million in a pay-off and perks, including a club car and free use of St Andrew’s best executive box.
Yeung called in the West Midlands Police Economic Crime Team amid suspicions of what were described as ‘financial irregularities’ but they ruled out any criminal investigation.
“Carson has had to put in around £7.5 million to cover backlogs and our due diligence team is still working away,” said Pannu.
“There may or may not be certain authorities involved when we have concluded our investigation. I say no more on that.”
Sullivan made an astonishing apology, via the pages of the Birmingham Mail, for being rude to Yeung and offered to sit down to talk to the Chinese.
But their only serious contact has been that telephone conference call, and Pannu said a financial offer made by Sullivan and Gold was not deemed acceptable.
“The official conversations we had with the other side, they were willing to return some money to the club, which was rejected by Carson,’’ he added.
“The sum of money we want back to wrap it all up is substantial. I won’t go into any further detail on that.”
As for Brady’s compromise agreements, Pannu said: “We got the car back, the box and the perks have been stopped.
“Obviously Karren got the golden handshake and she got the money they think she deserved. We will always have different views on that.
“Carson remains concerned about the bills he picked up. We are looking at it and whether there was an element of fraudulent misrepresentation.
“The rhetorical question is: would Carson have paid a pound a share had he known the true state of the finances?”
Pannu admitted he was not sure how Gold would react at the Upton Park game.
“When I congratulated them on the purchase of the club, I got replies from David Sullivan and Karren. Not from David Gold, though,’’ he said.
“He wanted to remain behind. We offered him vice president, he insisted on chairman, but we had Vico Hui as our chairman.
“He’s probably very unhappy that I didn’t keep him here as chairman.”
Sullivan and Gold spent an initial £20 million take control of West Ham three months after relinquishing control of Blues.
