Football League Will Not Investigate Birmingham

The Football League has confirmed that they are not going to take any action following the conviction of Birmingham City ‘owner` Carson Yeung. Yeung was found guilty earlier today of money laundering charges.

The governing body of the lower leagues are satisfied with the situation as Carson Yeung gave up direct roles before the outcome of his trail. These shifts in position took place in the run up to the end of Yeung`s trial.

Anyone with a criminal conviction cannot be a director of a football club, but there are further implications that they seem to feel are not relevant at this point in time. It is not unheard of for people to be controlling things behind the scenes via deals with shareholders or puppet directors.

Upon revelations that someone is acting as a shadow director, they have discretionary powers to act. The Football League, like everyone else, are aware that Birmingham`s board currently has Ryan Yeung (son), Victor Ma (brother in-law) and Panos Pavlakis (soon to be brother in-law) all on the books.

For the league to act Yeung must be directly or indirectly controlling 30% of the club to be regarded as a directing member. There is also the added factor that sharestakes are becoming more diluted as news broke a media company bought into the club whilst others have bought into BIHL.

The Football League has also confirmed that they have been working with Birmingham City during this period to ensure the club is complying with the ownership requirements. From this, and their lack of interest in the situation, it could be said that Pannu and co had the new arrangements pre-approved by the authorities before Yeung even began to relinquish power.

Companies are family owned all over the world, huge companies such as Enterprise only now are having their first non-family member chief executive controlling the company. With this in consideration it is understandable that the league are not willing to go head first into an investigation without a good cause.

Whilst Birmingham fans everywhere are calling for a sale of the club and the league to finally come in and protect this football club, it just is not going to happen.

In fact, the league have already been doing their best to protect the football club. It is worth noting that although the outcome is not the desired outcome for the majority of supporters, the FL have been involved for quite some time.

Birmingham City fans demanding the league to force a sale of the club are just speaking with a heavy heart and that is more than understandable.

BIHL has no intention of letting Birmingham City Football Club go, they have held on for dear life whilst the club has limped through several Championship campaigns and they have no intention of giving up now. The club is set to operate under the current climate, despite the end to Yeung`s saga.

All members of the Birmingham board are adults, university educated and if you believe the reports accomplished business men (maybe with the exception of Ryan Yeung). It would be difficult to infurr that these people are being controlled via Yeung when many setups around the world are family operated.

Proving a case against Yeung, for being a shadow director, on the face of things, looks a questionable proposition. I believe the Football League has made a reasonable decision and they have already exercised their supervision duty.