Birmingham City close to being taken over by former Watford owner Laurence Bassini
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Laurence Bassini, the former Watford owner, is hoping to complete a £35 million takeover of Birmingham City later this week.
Bassini has told Telegraph Sport that he has exchanged contracts on a deal to buy the Championship club and pledged to make “massive changes” if he assumes control.
The takeover is subject to approval by the English Football League, but Bassini will not be on the board and he is confident the directors appointed will be cleared.
Keith Harris, the football financier, is in line to be named as a joint executive chairman if the deal is given the green light.
David Sullivan, the West Ham owner, is understood to have loaned Bassini money to complete a deal but will not be involved beyond that due to the rules surrounding dual control on clubs.
The future of manager Lee Bowyer is uncertain, with former Queens Park Rangers head coach Mark Warburton and his assistant, John Eustace, expected to replace him.
Bassini said: “We will be having a go and I can tell you there will be massive changes all across the club.
“We want to improve the squad, the training ground and the stadium and have the money for that.
“I’m not in this for my ego, I want it to succeed and there is a three-year timescale.”
Birmingham’s current owners, Birmingham Sports Holdings Ltd, have been in charge at St. Andrew’s since October 2016 but their stormy tenure appears close to an end.
Last month the club’s Category One academy status was revoked due to a lack of investment, while there was also a nine-point deduction for breaching EFL rules.
Bassini took over at Watford in 2011 before selling the club a year later to the Pozzo family.
He has been declared bankrupt twice and had to serve a three-year ban after an independent commission ruled that he had been ‘dishonest with the league and his fellow directors’.
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