Birmingham City takeover is being ‘held up’ - here’s why

Birmingham City’s takeover is reportedly being held up as the club is failing to provide the English Football League with information about the current ownership structure.

Blues are on the brink of a takeover by a consortium led by the former Argentina striker Maxi Lopez and local businessman Paul Richardson. Richardson was at St Andrew’s last Tuesday morning (19 July), and he confirmed to the media that contracts over a deal have been exchanged and a deposit has been paid.

But speaking to talkSPORT on Wednesday (29 July) via The Athletic, the EFL’s chief executive Trevor Birch said: “We haven’t had the comprehensive information that is needed to even consider it.” The Athletic states that Richardson and Lopez have ‘submitted as much information as they can at this stage’, and they are reportedly working on a detailed business plan. The club’s current owners Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd have reportedly not provided full answers to the league’s standard takeover questions.

What have Richardson and Lopez said about their plans for the club?

In an interview with talkSPORT last week, Richardson discussed his hopes for the upcoming season. When asked if the consortium will have the money to back City in the transfer windiw, Richardson said: “Yeah, we wouldn’t be moving into it without having finace in place, it’s a combination of our own money and finance. The idea is to get the foundations into this club, and get the team playing football, and get the fans back in.”

When asked when the club could challenge to get back into the top division, Richardson admitted it could take some time.

He said: “It might take us a while, the idea is to get the foundations in, get the youth back in the team - there are some really good youth players in here, as you’ve already seen. Thinking about the Premier League is too early at this stage, but we have got ambition, but we want to put our feet on the ground first.

“We have meetings with the footballing side of the business tomorrow (20 July), so we’ll meet John and Craig Gardner and see what their plans are, and then hopefully if their plans are in line with what we want then we’ll move forward.”

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