Keith Wyness swipes at Birmingham City amid David Sullivan and Karren Brady ‘casino’ claim
Birmingham City fans have been warned about the club’s ambitious plans for a new 62,000 seater stadium.
That is according to ex-Aston Villa, Everton and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who states there are still questions that the club need to answer over the plans.
Birmingham announced they would build a new stadium to replace their current St Andrew’s home, in another statement of intent from the club’s ownership.
Co-owner and chairman Tom Wagner wants to take Birmingham to the Premier League, with the club currently 11th in the Championship table.
Birmingham have ‘lot of questions still to be answered’
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – has seen a project at Birmingham not materialise before.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness therefore believes it is not a given that the project they have projected to the fans will come to fruition.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “We’ve been there with Birmingham before. I remember before there was going to be a major casino project as well that was going to be going on with David Sullivan, Karren Brady.
“Look, the other question that we’ve got to look at is where are the revenues of this major facility going to go? It’s going to increase a lot of revenues now. There’s been talk as to whether it’s going to go into the club or whether it goes back into Knighthead Capital and some of the investors. So there are a lot of questions still to be answered on that point as well.
“So a lot more questions, but certainly I’ll say a good start for Birmingham that they put something out there. You have got to aim for the moon sometimes and they’ve certainly done that. Certainly they’ve been in the shadow of Aston Villa for a long, long time. This is certainly making a statement, but now you’ve got to live up to it.”
Chris Davies could be replaced amid Premier League aim
Birmingham manager Chris Davies could come under pressure from the owners amid their Premier League ambitions.
The Midlands club have been too inconsistent in the Championship this season, and they have yet to put a string of three wins together in the league.
Davies’ side though are only four points off the play-off spots and eight points off second-placed Middlesborough, in a highly competitive division.