Pannu insists City are safe

Acting chairman Peter Pannu insists Birmingham are in a sound financial position after flying to Hong Kong for talks with owner Carson Yeung. Yeung has been charged with five counts of money-laundering involving £59million.Yeung has been released on bail of £558,000 until the next hearing, which is scheduled for August 11, and in addition has been ordered to surrender his travel documents and report regularly to police.He is Birmingham's major shareholder, and the shares of Birmingham's holding company, Grandtop International Holdings, have been suspended.But Pannu is adamant that there is no connection between the charges against Yeung and the Midlands club which relate to a six year period before he took charge at St. Andrew's.Pannu said: "I've had it explained to me that the charges relate to the 2001-2007 period."That is two years before Carson invested in this club so there is no connection there."The finances are okay. I'm flying out to Hong Kong and will be able to tell you more when I come back."Pannu has tried to allay the fears of supporters after another setback following relegation from the Premier League and the loss of manager Alex McLeish to local rivals Aston Villa.He said: "The fans have nothing to worry about. Understandably the fans are worried about this."But this has got nothing to do with the club and there is no impact on the operations over here."I've spoken on a couple of occasions to Carson and his lawyers and they have assured me there is no link whatsoever."Yeung bought a 29.9% stake in City four years ago during the summer of 2007.He took full control of the Carling Cup winners midway through the 2009-10 season in an £81million takeover from David Sullivan and David Gold.Birmingham's relegation means they will now come under the jurisdiction of the Football League, but they are reluctant to make any public comment on the matter while the case is ongoing.A Football League spokesman said: "We are monitoring the situation. We cannot comment further than that."Pannu is still anticipating members of Birmingham's backroom staff following McLeish to Villa Park.Joint first-team coach Peter Grant is amongst those staff expected to follow McLeish across the city.Pannu said: "I've got a lot of legal issues with Villa to sort out. There are two (assistant) managers who still want to go across to Villa."

Source: Team_Talk