Birmingham City takeover: Inside the world of Carson Yeung
GLORY-dreaming Birmingham City fans were last night warned that Carson Yeung is no ‘sugar daddy’ and will never have the spending power of mega-rich Premiership clubs.
The secretive Hong Kong businessman has paid a non-returnable £3 million deposit with the view to buying the Blues for £81.5 million this autumn.
Co-owners David Sullivan and brothers David and Ralph Gold have accepted the £1-per-share offer – sparking hopes of a major spending spree on top players.
But Professor Ellis Cashmore, a lecturer in football culture at the University of Staffordshire, says he believes Yeung will not splash the cash like the billionaire owners of Chelsea or Manchester City.
He said: “I’d be extremely surprised if he came along like the other sugar daddies and said to Alex McLeish: ‘Here’s a blank cheque, go and buy the next best thing from Barcelona.’
“Fans will be expecting millions of pounds to be invested in the playing squad but I don’t think that will happen.
“It’s not a situation like at Chelsea or Man City where Roman Abramovic and Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim are billionaires. But people spend £60 million on pieces of art so, as mad as it sounds, £80 million is not that much money.’’
The motives of Yeung have been questioned by some in the past, but the enormous market potential in China for English soccer merchandise is one obvious factor for the takeover.
Yeung’s company Grandtop International Holdings currently owns 29.9 per cent of the club and has until October 1 to make its proposed £1-per-share offer.
It is almost two years since his first pursuit of the club collapsed when the businessman failed to secure sufficient funds after paying £15 million for his current shares.
That episode left some fans questioning whether Yeung, 49, has the financial clout to turn the St Andrew’s club around.
Prof Cashmore said: “Whenever I see a football takeover I’m always very cautious of the motives.
“Now does this guy want to make money out of Birmingham City or does he just want to say: ‘I own a football club’?
“It could just be a collectable item that he wants to be proud of, but he’s been after this club for two years so it seems to me that he sees some value in it.
“Buying a football club is actually a licence to lose money and you’ve only got to look at the bulk of the Premier League teams to see that they’re all in a lot of debt, except for Manchester United.
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