Fresh details emerge on Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez's Birmingham City investment | OneFootball

Businessman Paul Richardson and former footballer Maxi Lopez, who teamed up together to try and buy Birmingham City in 2022, pumped in nearly £8 million worth of cash before their takeover attempt fell through, it has been revealed in the club's latest accounts.

The Blues published their accounts for the financial year ending June 30, 2022 late last week and it uncovered yet another huge pre-tax loss for the club amounting to £24.8million.

The financial position of the club under current Hong Kong ownership group Birmingham Sports Holdings - who own a 75 percent stake - looks bleak, but it looked as though in 2022 they were to be joined by Richardson and ex-Barcelona striker Lopez, who aimed to purchae Vech Pong's 21.64 per cent share.

Richardson and Lopez, who were known as MaxCo because of their company name, were pictured at matches for months and even with new signings as they sought to complete a phased purchase of City, but in early December it had been announced that they had pulled out of the running.

It was widely reported that the pair had helped out financially, and now the accounts state that they invested £7.97 million worth of capital which formed part of their Master and Sale Purchase Agreement with the club.

The duo are set to be punished though by the EFL as they were charged in February with acting as 'Relevant Persons and/or acquired Control of the Club without the prior approval of the EFL', with an independent disciplinary commission set to dish out sanctions to the individuals involved and also the club.

The Verdict

You have to wonder how strongly Richardson and Lopez will push to get their money back if they can considering their takeover fell through.

Of course, things have gotten a bit more serious since then as it appears that Birmingham's current owners allowed them to act as controlling personnel without having the relevant approval beforehand from the EFL, and the club could be come down heavily on by the independent commission for that.

It did prove though that they were seemingly very serious about their staggered takeover of the club - to invest a sum of money like that only to end up pulling out of the takeover means that something went wrong behind the scenes or the current ownership tried to move the goalposts.