Please tell me when to stop laughing at SHA

[Zatman]

Indeed. The Fairs cup was not a major competition. It got plenty of revisionist history as it became the UEFA cup and the UEFA cup was an extremely glamorous competition in the 70s, 80s & 90s but lets not forget the Fairs cup was an invitation only friendly competition designed purely to encourage travel and trade between major European cities. You couldnt qualify for it, it wasnt UEFA sanctioned and you couldnt have more than one club from the same city in the competition in a given season. When Newcastle won it in 1969 they had finished 10th in the previous season and were only invited because the a lot clubs who finished above them were not interested or not eligible due to the one club per city rule.

am sure london get to the final 1 year or at least competed in Fairs Cup

[tismyk]

Yes they did, in 1958 the first year of competition as below,

Final London XI 2-2 CF Barcelona – 3 March 1958 at Stamford Bridge

Team: Jack Kelsey (Ars), Peter Sillett (Che), Jim Langley (Ful), Danny Blanchflower (Tot), Maurice Norman (Tot), Ken Coote (Bre), Vic Groves (Ars), Jimmy Greaves (Che), Bobby Smith (Tot), Johnny Haynes (Ful), George Robb (Tot).

Scorers: Greaves 10', Langley (pen) 88'.

CF Barcelona 6-0 London XI – 1 May 1958

Team: Jack Kelsey (Ars), George Wright (Ley), Noel Cantwell (Wes), Danny Blanchflower (Tot), Ken Brown (Wes), Dave Bowen (Ars), Terry Medwin (Tot), Vic Groves (Ars), Bobby Smith (Tot), Jimmy Bloomfield (Ars), Jim Lewis (Che)

CF Barcelona won 8-2 on aggregate

[Richard]

Had a really weird dream about this lot last night

First of all Ellis had bought them, he then brought in Oleary not as manager but between him and the manager which was still clark , to help him run the club.

They played us at their place and we were 2-0 up at half time and we then went on to win 4-2.

The most disturbing thing was that amongst our goalscorers was Ched Evans (Holman got two and Gabby the other)

Note to self, do not eat Sushi again

[GarethRDR]

That actually sounds relatively tame by dream standards. For example, last night I dreamt I was walking around a bazaar when I came upon a stall helmed by Morgan Freeman, except the stall was actually a nuclear warhead in disguise and he wanted to kill everyone, so I had to evacuate the bazaar (including my friend who was selling old video cameras two stalls over) and convince Freeman to diffuse the bomb.

[coda]

Hmmmm, Morgan Freeman and a nuclear weapon.

[villa4europe]

wasnt that a film?

[tismyk]

BIH to be sued over non payment,

http://www.oftenpartisan.co.uk/archives/6022/bih-to-be-sued-over-non-payment-of-loans.html

News has emerged from Hong Kong that legal proceedings are to be instigated against Birmingham International Holdings Ltd over non-payment of loans made to the company.

In an announcement to the HKSE, China Water Industry Group have stated that they are to take legal action to recover HK$43,180,721 (approx £3.5mil) in unpaid loans from BIH. The loans are between seven and twelve months overdue in payment and due to the continued uncertainty surrounding BIH China Water feel that they have no other option than to pursue the matter via the courts.

The issue is complicated as iMerchants (the subsidiary of CWIG who lent BIH the money) have two executive directors (including their chairman) who are independent non-executive directors of BIHL in Carson Wong and Raymond Yau.

Furthermore, last October iMerchants were forced to look into similar proceedings for money lent to another of Carson Yeung’s companies, the newspaper Sing Pao.

China Water Industry Group’s connections with Carson Yeung and former BIH Chief Executive Vico Hui have been in the news before, with the Market Misconduct Tribunal finding against a former CWIG executive director in an inquiry into insider trading which involved money lent by Vico Hui that was said by the tribunal to have “the hallmarks of money laundering”.

This is a tangled web and even to someone who has been following things closely, it’s confusing. However what stands out to me is the pure, bald fact that BIH are struggling to pay off their debts – loans which seem to have been lent to Carson on the basis of him being “connected” in the People’s Republic of China. Couple this with the continued delay to the accounts from BIH and in my opinion at least you have a company that is swiftly unravelling.

[Rodders]

so when is any of this financial troubles actually going to start affecting the club? Seem to be surviving ok so far?

[tismyk]

It just gets better and better,,,, BIH to be sued over non payment ,

http://www.oftenpartisan.co.uk/archives/6026/loans-debts-and-the-nightmare-scenario.html

Loans, Debts and the Nightmare Scenario

Having been asked by a few people what the news from Friday evening means in context to Birmingham City I’ve decided to put together this post. As always, where I have stated something as a fact I’ll cite it with what sources I can and if something is my speculation/conjecture I will make it clear that it is so. I also ask that you take into account that I’m not a trained accountant and lawyer and what I have put together is based on what I have read, understood and deduced via what I believe is logical.

As you may know already from reading this blog, there was an announcement made to the HKSE on Friday stating that a company called China Water Industry Group were to initiate legal proceedings against Birmingham International Holdings due to non-payment of approx £3.5mil worth of loans.

However, the reason for the announcement wasn’t to confirm that they intended suing BIH. Buried on the fifth page of the announcement is an explanation as to why they had to make the announcement:

The Company failed to publish announcements in respect of the above loans pursuant to Chapter 14 of the Listing Rules because management had failed to appreciate that financial assistance constituted “transactions” under Chapter 14 of the Listing Rules.

It then goes on to say:

Each of the Directors has since attended training from an accredited course provider to enhance his/her knowledge of the Listing Rules and the roles and responsibilities of directors of listing companies. The company is also recruiting additional staff to its internal audit department. The Company has revised its internal control system relating to the finance management to enhance management control and introduce more stringent procedures to improve the existing internal control system. In particular, the Company has produced and implemented a manual on the provision of financial assistance to independent third parties on 1 May 2012 so as to reinforce the efficiency and effectiveness of the financial control of the Group. Internal training has been provided to the accounting staff of Group’s PRC operating subsidiaries to reinforce their understanding of the Group’s internal control requirements. Further, the Company has appointed an independent internal control auditor to conduct a thorough review of and make recommendations to improve the Company’s internal controls for compliance with the disclosure requirements under the Listing Rules.

If you simplify that down from the Jargonese it’s written in it boils down to China Water Industry Group having to retrain its execs, it’s audit department and it’s PRC subsidiaries in how to lend money legally – in short, they’ve been caught out doing something they shouldn’t have done and they’re now having to rectify that. If they hadn’t been caught out would we have found out about these loans?

It’s also worth noting that they lent Carson all this cash without any security. Why did they do this? This is announced on page 2:

The Board at the time approved the BIHL Loans by majority vote on the basis that the provision of financial assistance to BIHL and its subsidiaries (at the best lending rates) could strengthen the Group’s relationship with both BIHL group and its chairman and substantial shareholder, Mr. Yeung Ka Sing, Carson (“Mr. Yeung”). They perceived that with a closer relationship the Group could benefit from Mr. Yeung’s extensive business connections in the PRC, through which good investment opportunities in the PRC may be identified.

In short, they lent him the money because he was perceived to be a mover and a shaker, who could bring them better contacts to make more money.

Whilst that may seem a bit alien to us in the Western world, this is how Chinese business works. I’ve explained in the past that connections, contacts and face have a big meaning in the boardrooms of the Eastern business world and it’s not uncommon at all for a company to lend money to another company based on the perceived belief that it would help them better their contacts in the long run.

So what changed? Why are they now considering pursuing legal proceedings only now bearing in mind the loans are between seven and twelve months overdue? Again, I believe that this question can be answered via the same explanation as the previous paragraph – since Carson has been arrested, he’s no longer seen as a mover and a shaker. He’s lost a lot of face, and he’s probably a bit of a pariah. Thus it is now imperative to not be seen to do business with him – and as such China Water are hanging him out to dry.

What does this mean in the context of Birmingham City?

Well, this is the big question. For me, it’s all to do with those long overdue accounts from Birmingham International Holdings. In the last accounts available to us – the unaudited set for the six months to December 2010, BIH announced that they owed HK$124million (approx £10mil) in loans with HK$80million (approx £6.5mil) on demand and due within a year. This had risen in six months from HK$77.7 (approx £6.4mil) and HK$35.7mil (about £2.9mil) that they said that they owed in June 2010 – a massive increase in a short amount of time. What troubles me is these are the last figures we have.

We know that the figure of HK$124mil doesn’t include a HK$10.8mil (£800k) loan made by China Water in January 2011 mentioned in their announcement, nor the HK$50mil (about £4.12mil) Carson borrowed against his house, nor the HK$76.5mil (about £6.3mil) sold in convertible notes to Yang Yuezhou , nor the HK$80mil (about £6.5mil) lent to the company by Yang Yuezhou at the end of last August. If you add all those together, you get a figure approaching £28mil – which is arguably a bit more than BCFC are worth – and these are the loans we know about. How much is there that we don’t know about – and more importantly, how much of it is due to be repaid or overdue?

What worries me is the nightmare scenario. In the last BCFC accounts, released a month and a bit ago, it was confirmed that BCFC owe Carson/BIH £21.5million. Consider this:

BCFC –owes £21.5mil–>Carson Yeung/BIH –owes £xmil–> Creditors

I’m not sure if it could be done, but is it possible Carson passes on his debts to BCFC in exchange for cancellation of the debt that BCFC owes him? It would effectively cut him out of the equation, leaving

BCFC —-owes a wad o’cash—-> Carson’s creditors

If that happened, BCFC would go from owing a significant amount of money to someone who is in no rush to get it back to owing a significant amount of money to people who want it now… and the only place BCFC would get that cash would be to sell players. As I said, it’s the nightmare scenario.

The logical thing to happen surely is for Carson to sell the club. However, I don’t think that following the most cause of action will necessarily happen. I’ve seen situations before where people in desperate financial trouble do silly things in the hope that it will get them out of the hole rather than cut their losses and lose something that they can’t afford to keep. There is the apocryphal story of the football club owner (I’m sorry, I can’t say who) who borrowed money from venture capitalists at what can only be described as wonga.com rates in a last-ditch bid to hold onto his club. As you can imagine, it ended badly – the owner lost a pile of cash and the club was hurt badly.

I’ve said all along that we need assurances from Carson or BIH that they’ve got plans in place to do something to solve their debt crisis; or that they plan to sell the club if they can’t afford to keep it. Their continued silence and the continued delay of their accounts is doing nothing but feeding paranoia and means I’ve had to spend a long time explaining something like this rather than delight in Blues scoring ten goals in two pre-season friendlies. I’m not normally a doom and gloom type but I am worried by this – and I can only hope that someone can push through a deal to buy the club before things really do go tits up.

[rjw63]

Hurry up and implode you dirty rags

[Tomaszk]

I expect Ravel (what sort of name is that by the way?) will be very popular with Broad Street bouncers.

[Demitri_C]

him and king will bbf's for life

[Zatman]

think i read he just had 7 teeth knocked out in pre-season. will definitely fit in

[rhyscartwright_avfc]

think i read he just had 7 teeth knocked out in pre-season. will definitely fit in

By who?

[BOF]

No he had 7 teeth removed because they were rotten.

[rjw63]

I expect Ravel (what sort of name is that by the way?) will be very popular with Broad Street bouncers.

Whooooooooooooooooo?

[VillaGoMarching]

No he had 7 teeth removed because they were rotten.

Really?

[mjmooney]

Haven't they been wound up yet? I'm getting fed up waiting. I only come into this section to see if there's any good news about sha.

[BOF]

No he had 7 teeth removed because they were rotten.

Really?

Yup. That's pretty disgusting to have 7 rotten adult teeth at 19 years of age. It tells you something about how much of a shit he gives about pretty much everything in his life. He is to be avoided at all costs.

[Nigel]

Some people just look like trouble!