Blues threaten to sue former owner

Peter Pannu has threatened to sue David Gold over his claim Birmingham's new owners went back on a promise to make him chairman.

Former Blues co-owner Gold, who bought West Ham with David Sullivan last month, claimed to have been offered the position following Carson Yeung's £81.5million takeover at St Andrew's.

But furious vice-chairman Pannu, who along with Yeung did not attend last week's game against the Hammers at Upton Park due to being away on business in Paris, insists Gold was only ever offered the position of vice-president.

Pannu said: "David Gold was never, ever promised or offered a position of chairman. He was offered vice-presidentship but didn't want it. He insisted on being the chairman.

"On my return from Paris, to read this claim of his, I was absolutely flabbergasted and furious. Now this imputation of dishonesty on the part of people who dealt with him – i.e me – is unacceptable.

"Therefore I demand a retraction and am considering legal proceedings. Carson Yeung, Sammy Yu, myself, nor anybody else at the club offered him the position of chairman.

"We wanted to ensure a smooth transition from the old to the new one, that's why we offered him the vice-presidentship as he was begging for us to give him a post in the club."

Pannu also insisted that the offer of vice-presidentship was then withdrawn after a row over Karren Brady's 'golden goodbye' package and the new board inheriting liabilities amounting to £11million.

The Blues vice-chairman said: "As David Gold had approved all these compromise agreements, we felt he wasn't therefore fit to be a vice-president as he was draining away resources from the club which could have been put to better use.

"We felt that by his actions he didn't have any love for the club anymore."