Birmingham City owners tell talkSPORT club ‘not for sale’, send apology to angry fans over miscommunication and outline three-year plan for Premier League promotion

Birmingham City owners have broken their silence amid fan protests, exclusively telling talkSPORT that the club is “not for sale” and sending a message of apology to supporters.

Blues fans have launched a campaign against the club’s owners due to years of growing dissatisfaction with the team stuck in the lower echelons of the Championship.

The hashtag #BSHLOUT [Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited] spread with results not improving, and fans had to ask about the men in charge.

talkSPORT reporter and Blues fan Ian Danter has claimed fans feel ‘deprived’ by the current ownership group and don’t even know who is really at the helm.

Outspoken pundit Simon Jordan also had his say, saying Lee Bowyer and Troy Deeney were ‘sold a puppy’ after moving to St Andrew’s this summer.

In response to growing discontent, club manager Edward Zheng told talkSPORT the club was not for sale and explained the lack of communication.

“This club is not for sale and we have no intention of selling this club,” Zheng said.

“I think it’s just because of the differences in culture for the Chinese people, we’re humble, calm and just doing our thing. That’s who we are, we don’t like to show ourselves everywhere.

Zheng also confirmed who actually controls Birmingham and when asked about any names linked to a connection to the club, he added: “I don’t know, I for one have no idea who they are.

“The main shareholder is Paul Suen. I don’t know why we have so many rumors everywhere.

Birmingham were relegated from the Premier League in 2011, the same season they beat Arsenal in the League Cup final.

The Blues missed out on an instant return to the top flight with a semi-final loss to Blackpool the following season, but have since failed to come close, finishing no higher than 10th in the past decade.

The club brought back former player Bowyer as manager in the summer to lead their charge up the table, along with local boy Deeney, but that wasn’t enough to start their rise.

Technical director and ex-Blue Craig Gardner also spoke to talkSPORT about the club’s current position, and he insisted funds were available as they aim to push for promotion to the Premier League.

“People know we put two or three offers for a certain person two or three weeks ago and people can say ‘yes, you put offers,’ but those three offers were correct,” Gardner explained.

“We weren’t messing around, I’m not here to play a game, I’m here to try to make a difference, with the management team and the board, we all want to come together and bring the good times back to the club.”

Gardner also slammed a lack of communication with fans, admitting it’s something that needs to be improved.

“We obviously realized that the levels of communication between the club and the fans weren’t great,” Gardner admitted.

“You will ask Edward [Zheng] in a minute but he was the one who came out and said we’re sorry, we have to fix things, and that was on behalf of the board, the management team of the club, so we want to invite everyone the world here so you get to see the truth, you get to hear the truth.

“Yes [reporters are] are going to come out and they are going to talk, which is very good by the way, but if they are going to talk if there is money to be spent at the club, come and ask me, report the truth.

“Ian [Danter] is a great guy, but please next time come talk to the club.

talkSPORT reporter and longtime Birmingham supporter Danter previously revealed he was blocked by Zheng earlier this month, but the situation has since been rectified.

I was unblocked by Edward Zheng tonight, which fortunately now gives me the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue with him – as should be the case with any other BCFC-related fan, writer or broadcaster.

Now then – on to consecutive wins for the team! 💙

— Ian Danter (@talkdants) January 24, 2022

Gardner made 124 appearances for Birmingham throughout his career, before retiring in 2020.

The former midfielder joined the club’s coaching staff last year, before being named technical director in June.

In this role, Gardner believes he can lead the club back to a promotion challenge and has explained how.

“In my head, I have a three-year plan,” he said.

“Right now the financial aspect of things is taking precedence over the performance aspect on the pitch, so we want to reverse that and start improving performance, results, while bringing the salary structure back to a decent budget.

“So we’re working very hard on that to try to be creative, that’s this year. Next year, it’s about stability with this club, we have to grow and say, ‘we’re here now, we are a stable club”.

“In the third year we have to compete because I don’t want to be involved with a stable club for four, five, six years, so our recruitment is very important.

“You can probably see the players who were trying to sign, we’re trying to sign pace, trickery, the kind of players that get the fans excited because the fans need excitement.”