Open Letter to the Owners and Executive of Birmingham City PLC

22 Apr 2021 | 21 comments

 

Blues Trust in partnership with Tilton Talk Show

Dear Blues Fans’

Blues Trust has partnered with the Tilton Talk Show to prepare an open letter to the owners of Birmingham City PLC and the Board. We are asking blues fans to sign up to the contents of the letter that calls for the appointment of an experienced CEO to stop the rot of the 10 years of decline. The idea is to demonstrate to the owners that the vast majority of fans whilst backing Lee Boyer and the team are demanding change at the Board and CEO level.

To have your voice heard please read the details below and then complete the petition information. The more signatures the louder your voice so if you have 5 season ticket holders or people who watch the games then we need all 5 to sign.  So come on lets #tiltontalkshow #BluesTrust #bcfc #KRO #getyourvoiceheard !

To the Owners and Executives of Birmingham City Plc,

The fans of Birmingham City FC are annoyed and tired with the continuing poor standards of executive management at our beloved club. We are generally a group that accepts and forgives mistakes so long as lessons are learnt. But ten years of decline provides the evidence to show that the executive management is severely lacking in its ability to run a football club or even learn to run a football club. This makes us question the motives of the executive and to conclude that achieving the best for Birmingham City FC is not top of their priority list and that they have some other underlying objective.

This is the shocking list of decline

From This   To Now
Promotion chasing Mens Team   Relegation fighters, as a result of poor decision making and detrimental interference on football matters by the executive that has wasted money, brought instability and lack of unity within the club
One of the top Women’s Teams in the country   Relegation Fighters, following interference in structure and managerial appointments by executive with an exodus of good staff and players
Academy producing top players   Doubt and uncertain future following executive announcements and exodus of good staff
Top administrative management team   People with little expertise unable to fill the massive gaps left by exodus of good staff following disputes with executive
Close relationship with fans   Lack of basic communication with fans with a lack of transparency in plans, decision making, financial stability and future of the club.
Debt free club with sustainable business plan   Massive debts, uncertain business plan with opportunities lost and investment wasted. Unclear financial arrangements, use of money from untraceable sources and breach of EFL financial rules.
Maintained ground with safety certificate in the ownership of Birmingham City FC   Unsafe ground with confusion over repairs programme and uncertainty as to who owns it with at least 2 companies having partial ownership (both operating in secretive off shore regimes.
Hope of improvement under new owners   Realisation that owners are destroying our club, the identity of ownership is unclear / unknown and involves an extremely complex structure of companies, and individuals with intertwined loans, debts and equity dealings.

We fans will always support the teams and the managers. We are all over the moon about the recent results achieved by Lee Bowyer and the team. But the fans cannot support the continuing incompetence at Owner and Executive level. Support for the Executive and Owners has been lost and the rot has to be stopped.

By signing this petition, we call for the Owners (whoever they are) and Executive team to acknowledge the errors made as a result of poor executive management, and to appoint and empower a competent CEO with experience of running a football club, who understands Blues and will be able to support Lee Bowyer and Carla Ward and the players.

Blues Trust in partnership with Tilton Talk Show

The petition form is shown below.  If for any reason it doesn’t show up, just click on this link or enter this URL in your browser and click ‘Enter’   https://forms.gle/iZPWAAaLmoBDunMCA

Here is a link to today’s article on the Tilton Talk Show website.

Membership

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We have options for 1 and 2 years at £5 per year.  There is also a 5 year membership for £20 so you get 5 years for the price of 4.  See information and options here.

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This category is not a membership and does not carry any voting rights.

By making comments on the above article, you agree to Blues Trust retaining your email address should we need to make contact with you for admin purposes.   Let us know at admin@bluestrust.org if you do not wish us to do this.  We will not give out your email address to any 3rd party sources.

21 Comments

  1. WayCoolBlue

    I do see this letter getting ignored. The executives you won’t removing need their names added to the letter
    Name and shame.

    It’s more than likely they will not even read the letter.

    And even if they do they won’t care their name is not on it if their name is not on it it’s not about them. So there is no embarrassment to them.

    The letter also needs to be sent to the headquarters in in the countries they reside in for those people with the money to read.

    The people with the money are the people with the real power and we may find that the executives within the club are acting on orders from the powers that be.

    I have signed it, But I am not expecting any outcome.

    KRO

    • Roger Butke

      Send the list of decline to the EFl

  2. Derek Wall

    Until recently a Season ticket holder for 50years +. Communication with fans and the running of my club at the senior level has reached an all time low!!

  3. John

    Unfortunately I agree with WayCoolBlue, I have also signed it but unless you name and shame the people who you need to bring out into the open they will just ignore it.

    have the EFL been sent a copy?

    KRO

    • John Warner

      Well done Blues Trust, if we don’t try, we’ll never know

  4. Wilf

    I also agree with WAYCOOLBLUE
    I have also signed, but do not expect any response
    from the club.
    I have sent several unanswered emails to all and sundry emails that are listed on BCFC website,
    Guess what!!!! Not one reply.

    • Derek Hawkins

      Signed in the hope it’s read.

  5. Leonard Edgington

    Can the letter as well as the Dong Out campaign be brought to the attention not just the to the owners but local and national press in UK and Hong Kong.
    Name and shame board members also.

    • John

      Good idea Leonard, get it out in the local and national press. Dong can only ignore us for so long if it becomes public, though this needs to be submitted to the tabloids by the Blues Trust board and not just anyone looking for retribution.

  6. ivor roth

    Surely there is some proper addresses with which to send our requests. They must have all these at the ground as required by law to be displayed. Who are these faceless people? Why do they not want to answer any relevant questions. We would have much more respect for them if they stood up and were counted. The league should tell us what we want to know. All we want is a meeting no one is going to get kicked.

    • John

      Though I’m sure that somewhere within the hallowed walls there will be a wall of shame (or present directors/owners/CEO’s names) it will be somewhere that fans won’t normally get to see. I imagine that the only three places that they have to be open with names and addresses etc. will be The Stock Exchange, in Birmingham’s case The Hong Kong Stock Exchange; The EFL and Companies House.

      This is just my opinion and I have no idea whether or not it is the case so please don’t quote me on this.

  7. Paul coley

    NAME AND SHAME
    They do not like to be embarrassed . Do it in the National Press
    KRO

  8. Sausage n Egg

    The incompetent oaf we have as CEO is like a Chinese version of Mr Bean only not as clever…. Had an easy ride without fans bet he can’t wait to face his public !!

  9. Andrew Smith

    My
    Although difficult I feel the way to get the required attention is by approaches to the business running the club via the Hong Kong newspapers etc. I am sure they will be more concerned about bad press in China than the local papers in UK, The Hong Kong stock exchange is everything to these faceless people.

  10. Cliff Horrocks

    Thanks for the comments and suggestions – we have sent to the press here and in HK and some of them have indicated they will run with it. Craig from Tilton Talk will be promoting on Radio WM Friday AM and after the game Saturday. Thanks for all those signing – the more we get the stronger the message KRO
    chair, Blues Trust

  11. Douglas Carr

    The “Powers that be” are from a different culture and don`t understand what a football club means to a community and hence does not feel the need to communicate with it`s fans – but perhaps with the collapse of the ESL foreign
    owners will have to have a “re-think” and realise that they have to communicate and cooperate with the indigenes supporters of the Club who are it`s “Backbone”

  12. Martin Walsh

    I agree that a copy of the open letter should be forwarded to the EFL. In light of the recent European Super League fiasco they are talking about looking into the ownership of English clubs and this is very relevant to their stated interest. Also The Chinese historically are all about the image that they present. So yes name and shame wherever possible.

  13. Mitchell Bray

    Staying in the Championship will have a double edged sword. Survival will be ‘as you were’ with the current owners clinging on to their HKSE status. Relegation to the wasteland of league One would, my opinion, have led to the owners jumping ship. That’s the choice-and it takes a heartache decision to choose the latter.

    • John Paget

      I completely agree with you. During the Karanka era I was all for being relegated as it would surely have got rid of the manager and probably the CEO, maybe if we were really lucky the owners too; of course the problem is, who would take on Birmingham’s massive debts?

      As things stand I want Lee Bowyer and the boys, and Carla Ward and the girls every chance of playing at their respective present levels next season to see if fan pressure can be brought to bear to make significant hierarchy changes without being relegated. Hopefully next season could be fruitful for every Birmingham team being run with at least an ounce of sense and pride in our wonderful club.

  14. David Frankum

    A fully comprehensive letter that requires a serious response.

  15. Stonnall Blue

    These owners have put in a lot of cash (albeit in loans) to support our great club.
    Surely they want to maximise that investment?
    Surely they can see the present CEO, whilst no doubt trying to do the right thing, is out of his depth?

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