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By Nick Harris
5 November 2010
David Gold, the former co-owner of Birmingham and now the co-owner of West Ham, has today been banned from attending tomorrow’s match between the teams at St Andrew’s over comments reported in a variety of newspapers today.
Remarks reported in this report in the Telegraph were key to the ban, sportingintelligence understands, with Gold reiterating that Birmingham had reneged on an alleged deal to retain him as chairman.
Birmingham have yet to confirm the ban in public but released a statement on their website this morning saying: “Blues acting chairman Peter Pannu, whilst refusing to be drawn into a war of words with the previous owners, wishes to clarify that Carson Yeung and Co had never offered David Gold to remain behind as ‘Chairman’, which would have made absolutely no sense.
“He was offered an opportunity to remain as vice president (non-executive) upon his request, which he refused. All the current allegations are false and untrue and the club will keep all options open.”
Birmingham have written to West Ham in private to confirm the ban. The latter says: “The [BCFC] board feel that they are left with no other option but to withdraw Mr Gold’s invitation due to the [remarks made to the Press] and that this is the appropriate action to take, in addition the board are also mindful of potential security issues for Mr Gold and a possible adverse reaction that may arise from the Birmingham supporters as a result of the comments made.
“Furthermore, as our president [owner Carson Yeung] will also be flying in for the game, the board felt that a harmonious boardroom environment should not be affected as we all want a good atmosphere on the day and a good game of football.”
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