Peter Pannu warns that player exodus at Birmingham City will continue

Peter Pannu has said the exodus of players from Birmingham City will continue as the Championship club seeks to avoid financial meltdown. The club's acting chairman said "contingency plans" are in place while Carson Yeung's assets are frozen – Birmingham's controlling shareholder has been charged in Hong Kong with five counts of money laundering, which he denies – but Pannu confirmed the need to off-load the higher earners at St Andrew's. Ben Foster , Liam Ridgewell and Scott Dann are set to be the next three to depart and more will follow. An announcement to the Stock Exchange is expected next week in relation to a fundraising issue designed to bring in £4m-£7m in the short term. HSBC, Birmingham's bank, remains in talks with the club but it is keen to support them and has not applied any pressure. Pannu said: "I wish to make it clear that whilst the benefactor's legal wrangles do pose some problems, we have sufficient contingency plans to cater for the temporary difficulties thrown at us. Our bankers have been very supportive and we still stand in a positive credit balance with them. "When we talk about off-loading players, we will not consider players on Premier League wages as this is not a sustainable scenario for a Championship club. Whilst in an ideal world we would wish to retain all of our star players, it is not realistic to do so."