Proof linking Cambodian diplomat Wang Yaohui to Birmingham Metropolis Soccer Membership is now within the possession of the English Soccer League, RFA has discovered.
The EFL final month efficiently utilized to Singapore’s Supreme Courtroom to entry information in a case introduced in opposition to considered one of Wang’s firms, in response to sources conversant in the court docket’s ruling who requested to not be recognized as they weren’t approved to discuss it publicly. The applying was made as a part of an ongoing investigation by the league into allegations that Wang secretly controls a considerable portion of Birmingham Metropolis’s shares, in contravention of EFL laws.
One of many defendants within the Singapore court docket case is an organization registered within the metropolis state, Gold Star Aviation Pte Ltd. Company information present that Gold Star Aviation’s sole shareholder is a British Virgin Islands firm referred to as Dragon Villa Ltd, which additionally controls 12.81 % of Birmingham Metropolis’s shares.
Among the many court docket information obtained by the EFL is a sworn affidavit given by considered one of Wang’s most trusted lieutenants, Jenny Shao, who can be a defendant within the case and has loved energy of legal professional over Wang’s affairs for greater than a decade. Within the affidavit, which RFA has seen, Shao states that, “Gold Star’s sole shareholder is Dragon Villa Ltd (“DVL”) and DVL is beneficially owned by Mr Wang.”
As an EFL member taking part in within the league’s highest division, Birmingham Metropolis is obligated to reveal the id of any particular person controlling greater than 10 % of its shares. Whereas Dragon Villa options within the membership’s possession assertion, Wang doesn’t. The disclosure describes Dragon Villa as a substitute as being “managed” by a person named Lei Sutong, who’s a director or shareholder at a number of Wang-linked firms.
The discrepancy between Shao and Birmingham Metropolis’s descriptions of Dragon Villa’s possession may have critical repercussions for the membership, together with potential misconduct fees or level deductions.
A membership spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark, however RFA understands that Birmingham Metropolis’s administration is standing by its present possession disclosure.
Birmingham Metropolis’s assurances don’t appear to have glad the league, which confirmed in a press release to RFA that its investigation is ongoing.
“On account of our ongoing investigations into the last word helpful possession of Birmingham Metropolis Soccer Membership, we’re not able to remark,” an EFL spokesperson informed RFA through electronic mail, commenting anonymously according to the league’s insurance policies.
The league launched its probe into Wang’s ties to the membership in early June, following an RFA investigation, which discovered the Chinese language-born Cambodian diplomat and advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen managed a big however undeclared stake within the membership by way of a sequence of proxies and shell firms. Birmingham Metropolis is considered one of England’s most storied soccer groups and at present competes within the nation’s second-highest tier, slightly below the elite Premier League.
That the EFL now holds the Singapore court docket information might clarify why a putative takeover of the membership has stalled in current weeks. Lengthy beset by monetary troubles and with its stadium in want of significant repairs, many Birmingham Metropolis followers are hankering for brand new possession. They might have thought their prayers had been answered when a bid was submitted final month by former membership director Paul Richardson and retired skilled soccer participant Maxi Lopez.
Earlier than any switch of possession can happen at a soccer membership taking part in in one of many EFL’s three divisions, the league should approve the sale. So as to take action, it requires data from each the client and the vendor about what the membership’s possession construction might be after the sale.
Writing in The Athletic final week, soccer journalist Matt Slater reported the EFL’s chief govt Trevor Birch as saying the league hadn’t acquired sufficient data “to even take into account” Richardson and Lopez’s bid.
Whereas the EFL has not elaborated on precisely what data it’s but to obtain, Slater instructed the info deficit lies with the membership’s present house owners.
“The Athletic understands that Richardson and Lopez have submitted as a lot data as they’ll at this stage,” he wrote. “However the membership and their present house owners haven’t but supplied full solutions to the league’s normal set of takeover questions.”
An RFA evaluation final month calculated that Wang and an in depth relative named Vong Pech management greater than half of Birmingham Metropolis’s shares between them. Whereas Vong’s title does seem within the membership’s official possession disclosures, in addition to inventory change filings by its Hong Kong-listed mother or father firm, Wang’s doesn’t.
Birmingham Metropolis’s house owners at the moment are in a bind. It seems that the EFL is not going to enable them to promote till they provide some extra transparency about who precisely the house owners are. But when they do, they threat sanctions from each the league and the authorities in Hong Kong.
