Owners

In recent games, some fans have displayed banners saying, “KILLING THE CLUB” and “GET DONG OUT NOW”. There’s also been some dissatisfaction expressed on social media and radio phone-in shows. I believe that fans have a right to express their opinions but think it is going to take more than a display of banners and some grumbles to bring about change at our club.

Judging from what happened at Charlton and Blackpool, if fans want to get rid of the owner(s) of their clubs, they need to be united and prepared to keep going for a long time. Read about the efforts of Charlton fans to get an idea of how their fans united together to persuade Roland Duchâtelet to leave, and watch the video showing what they did. And it took them over five years to get rid of him. Blackpool fans boycotted games for four years before the end of the Oyston family’s ownership of their club.

It seems clear that some Blues fans want a change in the way our club is run.  But it is not clear if enough fans would unite and agree on a way to get that change or how long they would keep striving for it. Blues Trust would rather talk to the people running the club than organize protests. And, after having one meeting with Dong Ren, we think there might be a chance that we could talk with him rather than shout at him through the media – from afar.​​

Margaret Decker

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7 Comments

  1. Des

    I’m not even sure if I really want them gone tbf, after all they have plowed millions into the club, its the team, the shirt, the badge, the club that I support not the Board of Directors as for Boycotts, never not in a zillion light years, to me that is the opposite of being a supporter

  2. Peter watson

    Des you are right they have put a lot of money in we fans should get off their backs without them where would the club be I dread to think

  3. Bill

    The owners have put more money into the club than any owner has since I saw my first game in 1960. Unfortunately it wasn’t well spent and they are having to live with the consequences. The policy they have adopted to get the club out of the mess may
    just work and in any event who would want to buy the club with the amount of debt compared to income ?
    We need success on the pitch to get us up and the backing of supporters is vital to encourage the team. The owners should be made to understand this and it seems need to be convinced so all power to Blues Trust in their efforts….Let’s Keep Right On.

  4. Jonno

    Yes the owners have put millions into the club but the majority has been by way of loans. If they are committed firstly let see a large portion of this transferred to capital. Many mistakes have been made mostly by Ren, costing the club millions and getting us into trouble with EFL yet the owners still have him in situation. Ambitious owner would have replaced him by an experienced person who didn’t interfere in the playing squad.

  5. Eric Jones

    Fair enough but just one meeting with Ren – that is not acceptable. It appears that the owners want this club because it is on the stock market rather than because they love football. I do believe that the Chinese way is markedly different from the British way of thinking. We fans will always be here but not the owners. In the meantime owners need to show more respect for the fans.

  6. Mitchell Bray

    Good article Margaret.Thought provoking. May follow on with your views if ok by you in a future Vital Birmingham blog.Regards.

  7. Andy Edwards

    We have to be realistic. Making life tough for the owners is going to be a long struggle and one which could damage the club, investment and the team. After that struggle could be guarantee a new owner would serve us any better. Are things really that bad that we need to make life difficult for the owners, which may only serve in making life more difficult for us/the club/the team? If we were sitting 5th 6th in the table we wouldn’t even be having the conversation. As the table stands today we are just three wins away from that situation – not a million miles. Gold and Sullivan were hounded out, because we began to expect more and more. People forgot where we were when they took over. Regards the present ownership they have put £100m of their own money in. Okay, so that’s officially a loan, but unless they are prepared to severely devalue their own investment I’m not sure we should focus too much on it. They are doing it because they are attracted to football for status and because they hope to recoup their investment with the glory of a return to the premier league as so many other owners are trying to achieve. Chelsea’s owner has loaned them billions over the years, this is the way football works now and any other owner investing in BCFC would do exactly the same loan structure. It’s interesting because the same fans moaning about the debt are often the same fans pressing for signings in January. If the owners suddenly starting selling our best players and bringing players in from league 1 and 2 are lower wages to balance the P&L how many supporters would start to bemoan this? Cake and eat it, and all that. My only complaint about the current ownership is their policy towards managers – too hire and fire. The team has had a more positive start to 2020 and I just hope that continues, and that the board then put faith in the management team to do what they need to do.

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