Birmingham City’s prospective new owners discuss when the club can challenge for promotion

Blues are on the brink of a takeover by the consortium led by the former Argentina striker Maxi Lopez
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Birmingham City’s prospective new owners have said “it could take a while” to get the club back into the Premier League.

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 on Tuesday morning (19 July), and he confirmed to the media that contracts over a deal were exchanged over the weekend and a deposit was paid on Monday.

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The club is currently owned by Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd, and the BBC states that, subject to EFL approval, their initial investment would be a 21% stake in the club which would not give them a controlling interest - but it would mean that Lopez and Richardson would effectively run the club and would look to increase their stake and take control completely over the next couple of years.

St Andrew’s stadium, BirminghamSt Andrew’s stadium, Birmingham
St Andrew’s stadium, Birmingham

In an interview with talkSPORT, 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.

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“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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