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Postcards from HK: The Book
As I’m back in Hong Kong for a short period of time I thought that I would resurrect this series and give you some snapshots of what is happening out here. As it’s 12:30am and I’ve been here an hour I can’t really talk much about what I’ve found out but I can share some plans with you.
As you can imagine, I am primarily out here for my book (shameless plug here). The book was featured in the South China Morning Post on Sunday and most of my day tomorrow will be taken up with interviews and a launch date.
However, the end of September is a big time for BIH. There is a board meeting next Tuesday at the head offices in Wanchai to discuss the accounts – and I believe the role Peter Pannu plays within BIH following the ending of his consultancy agreement and his managerial contract at BCFC. I’ll be going across to Harbour Centre to see if I can ask any of the directors questions about the club and what is happening – and I’ll be talking about what is released and what is happening on the webinar scheduled for lunchtime that day UK time.
I’m out here with David Turner, who was the designer behind the Delay No More campaign and who has done all the awesome graphic design and layout work for the book. We’ve mapped out together some plans of places to go and people to chase for answers – I can’t promise we’ll get them but we’re getting to that time where BIH probably need to be reminded that the Birmingham City fans would like an idea of what is happening with regards to the club in the coming year as a takeover doesn’t appear to be close.
I’m going to try and update once an evening with some snippets from out here; however the internet can be sketchy so I will be honest in saying that might not happen as frequently as I would want.
Tags: BIH, Carson Yeung, Peter Pannu, The Book
41 Responses to “Postcards from HK: The Book”
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Good luck in finding any answers, just to know we won’t have to pay PP anymore extortionate fees will be a bonus.
KRO+DNM
All the best. I hope the visit is as informative as you hope it will be.
As much as we appreciate your efforts in trying to get answers from these idiots, I can’t help but feel you are wasting your time. I just feel we are just a business to these people and worries, opinions of supporters don’t count. If they did genuinely care then they would be giving regular updates on what is happening as far as new owners etc. They don’t seem to realise that we are more than just a business and that the club belongs to the supporters and not them. These people have only been here a short time whereas supporters have been here for generations and will there still long after they are gone.
Spot on Paul.
They have little. intention of selling the club.
Never did.The fans cannot see it.
At the end of season they needed funds quickly so they pretended to put the club
up for sale to promote season ticket sales and had everyone guessing about the
Non existant sale price.
The worst thing that happened was Jordan Mutch being sold by Cardiff
Giving the owners a million quid .
The owners will only sell if forced to.
A boycott of the club’s home games by fans en- mass would be effective
but I doubt anyone could organise it.
KRO.
I appreciate your vote of confidence John but I have to disagree with your ideas of boycotting the club. By doing so we are hurting the people that count and they are the players, other staff and supporters. These are the innocent victims in all this and we should all be United in forcing the issue with the owners. We have to come up with ideas where we have put pressure on them and surely find ways of getting the English FA to force them into a decision.
It has been taken up with the Football league and as long as BIHL and BCFC continue to function within the rules they cannot do anything.
The Football league need concrete evidence to look at before they can act.
I agree with you a boycott will never happen but disagree with you reasoning.
How many strikes take place where the only people who suffer are innocent parties, air traffic controllers is a classic example.
The fans and supporters had the chance to show their feelings by not purchasing merchandise and season tickets, however, due to some excellent PR and an announcement the club was being sold everyone dashed out and bought more tickets than the season before.
KRO+DNM
Chris,
You can’t compare Air traffic controllers with a FOOTBALL CLUB.
Football clubs are like no other business on the planet.
What numpty would own a business where there Income is the same as the wage bill.
There aren’t many but plenty of football clubs fit into that category.
John, not comparing BCFC or any club with traffic controllers, just an impact statement that when Traffic-controllers go on strike the innocent operators and passengers suffer, as was mentioned that taking action those innocent members of BCFC would suffer.
And no I would not own or run a business that does not make a profit but thankfully many do or we would have nowhere to go on a Saturday afternoon.
KRO+DNM
Sorry PAUL,
If the fan base at present just keep going week after week then the owners will not sell.
As I’ve said before the owners will not sell unless FORCED to i.e. deprive them of money /funds coming in.Their HKSE listing is too valuable to them so they will not sell.
You have to treat them with contempt because that is all they are worth.
Are they at the games?…does HK have any representation at any match these days?…..they are not interested mate……they want their 81 mill back and that aint gonna happen we know that but they will never accept coz they are Chinese and that’s their Psycheeee.
I am not knocking Chinese at all coz I deal with them everyday in my business life.I’ve dealt with HK Chinese who have sat on stock for 10 years trying to make a profit rather than unloading and moving on….they have to save face with their backers,friends,business partners etc.
This lot will not sell unless forced.It’s as simple as mate.Pressure in the form of reduced income has to be applied to the whole club.How we do that is a complex enough problem.I wish there was a smoking gun unearthed regarding the original purchase.That was a disgrace.
your obviously not a supporter then john because you would go down regardless of any situation so carry on being a ” fan ” instead and just watch from the sidelines while the real ” supporters ” carry on wasting our money going down to st. Andrews and going all over the country like I do having a wonderful time and being proud to be a blues fan. KRO.
Just because some fans believe a boycott to rid us of BIHL is the answer does not make them any less of a supporter,it’s time we stopped having a go at each other and attack the real route of our problem the owners!
I propose a new strategy a short sharp shock a one game boycott or a post match sit in that would get attention of the regime and the press !
Unless anyone has a better idea,but one thing we all need to face up to is can we really risk letting it carry on another 2or3 years as has been mentioned the stats show we are getting progressively worse relegation seems inevitable which could be catastrophic financially i don’t even want to think about the consequences if that were to happen.We can’t bury our heads in the sand hoping they’re just going to go away or sugarcoat the situation any longer if we carry on doing nothing blindly giving BIHL money week in week out they are preying on the loyalty of supporters enabling them to keep their strangle hold on the club IT WILL GET WORSE we need to do something now while we still have time to save not only our season but BCFC itself our future depends on us the FA are worthless and weak BIHL are only here while the money keeps coming in!
Our clubs future maybe it’s very existence rests with us only if we stand together United will We be loud enough to be heard question is do we have the courage to make a stand and say NO MORE?
Regarding the game on Saturday, a decent referee would have had Norwich down to 10 men before half time after the blatant penalty was overlooked by a hopeless referee, who angered both sides and both sets of supporters. I think some of our new players, particularly Donaldson, Gray and Shea are getting to grips with this division. As for Pannu he should be sent off as well, anywhere away from our club will do! KRO
You could see Saturday that Lee Clark’s tactics were spot on and there wont be many teams that will give Norwich that much trouble at Carrow Road this season. Any point away from home is a good point and it is about patience, I think Clark has put together a pretty decent team and he needs the backing from Hong Kong that no players will be sold and be allowed to take us forward rather than constantly having the rug pulled from under his feet.
I can see Gray going the same way as Redmond and possibly being re-united with Redmond at Norwich. Money talks and he could get a lot more there. Promotion is the only possible way we could hold onto our good young players. Even then……..
Money is the only thing that talks Raymondo. Certainly, loyalty doesn’t.. not in the modern game. I don’t care if they are bluenoses… when the money is offered, any colour is better than blue. Don’t kid yourself it’s any other way.
backing Clark- this is his team- he has stated over and over again that -we shall not struggle- he has spent the restricted finances as he wished – he is comfortable with his purchases- although I wonder what Duffy has to do to get a look in- when you consider Caddis running around in midfield like a headless chicken- REMEMBER 1 WIN IN 24 HOME MATCHES-1 WIN THE LAST 13 GAMES TOTAL
I am sorry but I am judged over the last 30 years on my performance at work- and if yo measure our managers performance it would have led to bankruptcy in a business -REMEMBER FOOTBALL IS RESULTS BASED ND A BUSINESS FIRST
No sentiment in business – I was at Brentford, rushed straight from the airport to the Leeds game and although only 64 years old- hitch hiked in mid week to Middlesorough -Sunderland in years gone by have been going down for 57 years, watched them on nearly 70 different grounds aso any half decent manager would have at least another 6 points on the table and when does Clark ever blame himself, I rest my case
I entirely agree.
Our league position at the same time last season is lower and we had quite an easy start.
i wish i could argue the point but i cant. KRO.
Good luck with the launch of your book Dan and even better luck trying to get answers for your questions to bihl.. as for pp goodbye and good riddance !!
Dan – the board just need to look at our slump in the league since they took over to understand things ain’t going swimmingly:
2009/10 — 9th in Premier League
2010/11 — 18th in Premier League
2011/12 — 4th in Championship
2012/13 — 12th in Championship
2013/14 — 21st in Championship
Take care out there mate.
that means relegation then this season DoctorD when ive already said that we wont go down after the norwich performance……those statistics MUST change or there be only crowds of 8/10,000 next season….i would just like to congratulate these owners on a marvelous job done over the last 5 seasons as weve gone from league cup winners to league one if this trend continues. KRO.
All the very best to you and David, Dan. I think you are very brave to be out there challenging some of these guys in their own back yard, especially when you take on board these guys previous assoications. Take care and good luck with the book.
we need to organise a joint March/Demonstration to the head quarters of the FA and the football league. Blues fans have had enough of the BS and need to mobilise on mass……it will make the football authorities sit up and take notice when they have been disturbed from there slumber !! KRO
Hi Richard, let us know when you organise mate and I believe thousands will support you and follow you down. I find it hard to believe that the FA don’t investigate when the companies constantly delay there accounts.
I am not being rude here mate, but our supporters cannot even get together to make a half decent protest at the ground. Calling Carson Yeung a wa**er ever 45 minutes is doing what? How many Blues fans would actually go to the FA?
Dan does what he does, which is great, although he is trying to sell a book. But how many people have actually been able to do anything and lead anything. I include myself in this list. The problem that surrounds blues and the club is apathy. 10,000 fans have left and most will not be back and other than this website- what has actually happened? This website should not need to be the main informant to our own newspaper!
I agree Pete, BCFC supporters are suffering with a severe case of apathy.
I have wrote to the Football league and attended the Supporters Seminar with other Blues Trust members where Birmingham City ownership and current plight were discussed.
The Football league have assurances from our owners that they can fulfil all requirements for the current campaign and unless they have evidence to the contrary there is nothing to investigate. The same applies to the running of the club, again until they have hard evidence or any members of the board fail the “Fit and Proper” requirements they cannot take any action
The only way to force BIHL out, and this is only my opinion, is to starve them financially.
Unfortunately nothing can be achieved until the start of the new season as season ticket sales have been purchased and sponsorship deals signed, match day sales are only a pittance when it comes to running a football club in today’s world.
A march could be arranged but the funding and policing would out way any influence it would impact on the club, as for a complete boycott, it would never happen.
Newcastle tried a mass walk out that became an embarrassment when only a few hundred took part and they have a support of 50 odd thousand.
We are stuck with what we have until either A) someone with more money than sense come in or B) HKSE find irregularities and force the sale.
KRO+DNM
it all makes sense richard but they wouldnt do a thing because they wouldnt know what to do because they would have done something by now, great idea but a waste of time, sorry pal. KRO.
Nothing stopping you leading it Richard.
Kick someone in the b******s enough and they will eventually become numb….that is what has happened to Blues fans.OP is the only place to have an inkling of whats happening. The Midlands press are worse than useless and at least we know where we stand with them and the indifference they have by and large shown…if it was the vile rubbish down the road the papers would be full of it.
The new library being decked out in claret and blue lights last Christmas and the fuss The Birmingham Mail made about it still rankles with me!
I have a hunch that the meeting next Tuesday will be very productive and may be the catalyst for a brighter future for Blues.
We can only hope Richard. I keep telling myself that things can’t get much worse and the only way is up. It’s hard to believe that our club won a major trophy a short while ago. The rate of decline since has been unbelievable and it’s due to owners.
Daniel while there any chance you pop in a see CY see if he will give his side to the story…he might levvy a wager with you though….good luck with book sales…
Not allowed to see him mate – thought I’d already mentioned that to you before?
sorry Daniel you may have, is where any other directors at blues who are willing to have a one on one with you?
Dan I see the share price has dropped to 7 cents and shares traded at 220 million any local views on this ???
Daniel how many copies of your book do you expect to sell, and is there a high interest in Hong Kong in your book due to the high profile of Carson?
Do you have a mass media interest there?
Blimey, is this 20 questions?
If you took the time to look at the book website Mark you’d see I did two interviews yesterday ;)
And I hope we sell them all…
thanks Daniel, dont forget i work as well keep your hair on….great interview
;)