Sammy Yu Wai-ying, the man helping Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung Ka-sing's bid to complete a takeover of Birmingham City, last night urged the Premier League club's board to keep a cool head as a deadline to close the deal enters its final weeks.
'We have already taken a 29.9 per cent stake in the club with real cash, it was not for a joke,' Yu told the Post, responding to weekend reports in England that said Birmingham chairman David Gold had cast fresh doubts over the takeover.
A report in The Independent newspaper said Yeung had been given until last Friday to prove he could raise the GBP35 million (HK$560.6 million) needed to buy out Gold and City's co-owner, David Sullivan.
The newspaper quoted Gold as saying: 'The fact we haven't heard anything confirms the odds against a takeover have lengthened considerably. The deadline is December 21, but proof of funds was supposed to be confirmed by Friday and it has not happened.'
Yeung's adviser Steve McManaman told the Sunday Mirror that the takeover was unlikely to be completed by deadline. 'The takeover is rolling along, but very slowly,' said McManaman. 'I don't think there's much chance of it being done by this month's deadline.'
But Yu said he could not understand the impatience that was being shown. 'We don't know why they [Gold and Sullivan] are being so negative,' he said. 'This kind of news does not help the cause. We hope that all parties will stay cool and work together.
