The language is a cross between Plug or Wilfred from the Bash Street Kids (without their rebellious charm) and St Trinian’s. The tone carries a distinctive hint of sub-Joe Maplin, Hi de Hi-style executive menace.
“You can go on and on in your site about me... anything said in favor of me is made by you as it has come from me. This one is from me for sure...
“Well, I tell you what, I know you are passionate about the club but at times you really do annoy us in HK. You books (sic) is not well received by Carson and your facts are certainly not correct.
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“Daniel, you asked to see me at a s***hole pub in wan chai girly bar and offered me a beer. I don’t think that was particularly respectful as I was more than willing to entertain you at much better places. Your ego to present me a book which slags me and Carson off with an offer of a beer to me in HK was an act of low class retaliation for the club’s efforts to erase very defamatory comments about me and Carson. You have made it clear you hate me very much, and I can tell you I don’t hate you at all, just pity you.”
And so the rant goes on, a cross between a classic Private Eye Great Bores of Today and the more mangled utterances of Lord Prescott, another charmer with a hint of occasional menace when it suited him.
The recipient of the aforementioned sub-primary school playground invective was Daniel Ivery, who runs the popular Often Partisan website dedicated to his beloved Birmingham City FC. Ivery had made the Pannu vitriol public after the former Blues acting chairman apparently posted comments ‘under an anonymous name’ on the site.
Some history is necessary at this juncture. Pannu is a controversial figure in the eyes of many Blues fans after revelations that he has earned almost £2 million in consultancy fees on top of his salary, according to the club’s Hong Kong parent company Birmingham International Holdings (BIHL).
BIHL revealed last month that consultancy payments made to the ex-acting chairman exceeded an annual cap in three successive years, covering the years ending June 2012, 2013 and 2014.
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It handed Pannu’s Asia Rays operation a total of more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars – more than £1.6 million – during that period.
And BIHL said it also expected to pay out 2.8 million Hong Kong dollars – more than £230,000 – in the current financial year, ending June 2015. The details were disclosed in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange which came six weeks after Pannu’s contract with Blues was terminated.
But – and it is a big ‘but’ – the former Hong Kong policeman remains a club director on the Blues board and an executive director, CEO and MD at BIHL, and is up for re-election at the Hong Kong annual general meeting on December 23.
He had previously been among football’s highest-paid executives, with a salary of £687,611 in the financial year to June 2012.
As former Swindon Town chairman Jeremy Wray broke cover to confirm that he had made a formal offer for the club with a promise of a £25 million a year budget, the Ivery-Pannu cyber-wars continued.
Ivery retaliated: “As I have intimated for a while, there is a civil war at Birmingham International Holdings right now and because of that there is no one there who seemingly wants to make a decision. Throw in the alleged involvement of Carson from his prison cell and you’ve got a mess of Augean stable proportions – whether Wray has to divert the whole of Hong Kong Harbour through the BIH offices to clean it out is another matter.” Well, Daniel has a more pithy turn of phrase than the loquacious Mr P, that’s for sure.
Meanwhile, Blues responded to the Pannu rant with a statement which said: “Birmingham City Football Club is extremely shocked and disappointed to read a number of allegations that have appeared in various media sources today.
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“All involved at the club are wholly unimpressed and saddened by the unprofessional and ludicrous actions taken which seem intent on discrediting and damaging individuals and the club; this is entirely unnecessary.”
In the grand scheme of things, the Pannu rant will surely become yet another depressing footnote in the history of a proud football club close to the hearts of tens of thousands of Brummies who invariably part-rejoice in the club’s woes.
There’s frequently a gallows humour surrounding Blues followers of all ages and backgrounds, an anti-establishment ‘nobody likes us, we don’t care’ philosophy which has served them well down the years. Jasper Carrott perfected the Blues fan’s view of the world, with that trademark lugubrious wit which captures the perpetual anguish of the average St Andrew’s supporter.
But there’s nothing remotely funny at the sight of a historic sporting instutition intrinsic to the lives of many thousands being brought virtually to its knees by a mysterious bunch of Far East businessmen who might struggle to distinguish Trevor Francis from Bob Latchford.
Equally, there’s nothing very funny about Pannu’s rant to Daniel Ivery, although it’s hard to suppress the occasional snigger at Mr P’s unique command of the Queen’s English.
But the sad fact is that Pannu, who has made a considerable sum out of Blues, remains executive director, CEO and MD of the parent organisation which still controls a much-loved football club. Blues fans deserve better direction than that of a man forever damned by his own desperately clumsy words.