Birmingham City insist Carson Yeung is main man at St Andrew’s

Nov 18 2009 By Alun Thorne

“But I spoke to the boss about this last night and he is very much in charge, he is control, he is not a front man – he is the main man.

“There will be no effective dilution of Carson’s shareholding in the club, nor will there be any lessening of his decision-making power.

“What is happening here, the boss has clarified, is an investment to enhance Grandtop’s business and media expansion in China for the purpose of benefitting the club in the long term.”

A senior Birmingham stockbroker, who studied the Grandtop proposal released to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, commented: “I do not think that this is necessarily sinister.

“It’s not so much asset-stripping, close it down, make people redundant. It’s more a case of ‘blimey, who does own the club’?

“Why does it all seem so intricated and complicated that even financial analysts find it difficult to understand who owns what?

“And when you get the involvement of the British Virgin Islands, where you do not have to declare anything, it clouds the issue further. It is difficult to establish who is the ultimate owner.

“It may be that Carson Yeung is the frontman – has he got the money to invest in the team? It is just so mysterious, like smoke and mirrors.

“Having said that, if it is Chinese ownership, they have got all the money in the world, so it is not a question of shutting the club down.”