West Brom: Football author reacts to Chinese ownership discovery from Action for Albion
Martin Calladine has reacted to a discovery from Action for Albion that suggests the Chinese state could be the biggest shareholder of West Brom.
Action for Albion, who are leading protests against change at The Hawthorns, shared a graphic on Thursday (8 June) of the web of ownership at the club and how it leads back to the Chinese state.
The graphic suggests that the Chinese state actually has a 15.77% stake in the Baggies, which is more than any individual or company and is contrary to the official West Brom website, which states that Guochuan Lai is the majority owner.
Taking to Twitter in reaction, sportswriter Calladine wrote: “This is quite something because, under EFL rules, all clubs must have a statement on their website showing who all the ultimate beneficial owners of a 10%+ stake in the club.
“West Brom identifies Guochuan Lai as the majority owner.”
Later in his thread, Calladine added: “This is an epic piece of detective work by Action for Albion and will, hopefully, finally force the authorities to address the situation at West Brom.”
Remarkable discovery
How the ownership structure behind West Brom has been hidden behind closed doors for so long is utterly ridiculous.
Fans deserve to know exactly what is going on at their club, and they surely have to be offered a certain degree of transparency.
This graphic from Action for Albion is a brilliant piece of investigative work, and it is finally exposing the makeup of the club’s ownership. Hopefully, they will continue to uncover anything that has been kept from the Baggies faithful.
Questions must also be asked of English football’s authorities and how this has been allowed to happen in the first place.
Although it is hard to hear, now this has happened at The Hawthorns, it hopefully shouldn’t be an issue for any other club moving forward as long as the authorities get a grip on the issue.
This is a groundbreaking discovery and further highlights the level of secrecy at West Brom Football Club.
In other West Brom news, a serious allegation has been made about one of the companies behind West Brom’s ownership.