David Gold banned from ground for West Ham match at Birmingham City

David Gold tonight expressed his disappointment after Birmingham City responded to his latest bitter spat with the club's vice‑chairman, Peter Pannu, by banning him from West Ham United's match at St Andrew's tomorrow. The West Ham co‑owner, who was due to return to the club he served as chairman between 1993 and 2009 for the first time since he sold his stake to Carson Yeung last year, is bitterly upset at Birmingham's stance but has no intention of trying to get into the ground. Gold and Pannu have been at loggerheads for some time but today's extraordinary events have taken their enmity to another level. Birmingham sent an email to West Ham this morning informing them Gold would not be granted access to the boardroom or directors' box at St Andrew's because of the "inflammatory comments" the 73-year-old had made to newspapers. Gold claimed Pannu had insinuated he had lost his mind and was "too elderly to be involved at the club". He described Pannu's behaviour as "disgusting" and "insulting", talked about gaining "sweet revenge" and also accused him of reneging on an agreement that allowed Gold to continue as chairman when the £81.5m takeover went through. Birmingham have issued a statement rejecting Gold's allegations as "false" and sent a second email to West Ham telling them that for safety reasons Gold would not be allowed into any part of the stadium. Birmingham's statement, which left open the possibility of legal action, said: "Blues acting chairman Peter Pannu, whilst refusing to be drawn into a war of words with the previous owners, wishes to clarify that Carson Yeung and Co had never offered David Gold to remain behind as 'Chairman', which would have made absolutely no sense. He was offered an opportunity to remain as vice-president [non executive] upon his request, which he refused. All the current allegations are false and untrue and the club will keep all options open." Gold responded by saying: "I was looking forward to attending the game at Birmingham City FC, seeing old friends and was more than happy to put my personal differences aside for the day and shake hands with Peter Pannu and the rest of the Birmingham board. "I am therefore extremely disappointed that the club has decide to withdraw their offer to invite me to St Andrew's. Despite this, I look forward to welcoming each member of the Birmingham City board to Upton Park when they visit us in February for the return fixture. I do not want this matter to overshadow or distract from what is a vital game for West Ham United, and as such I will not be making any further comments at this moment in time." David Sullivan, who is the co-owner at West Ham after operating alongside Gold at Birmingham, will attend the game and intends to go into the boardroom beforehand despite today's events. Karren Brady, who left Birmingham at the same time as Sullivan before taking up the chief executive position at Upton Park, will not be at the match because she is filming The Apprentice, leaving Sullivan looking like a distinctly lonely figure for what should be an interesting pre-match lunch with Yeung and Pannu. Gold had suggested earlier in the week that he was feeling "some trepidation" about returning to St Andrew's because of fears about how supporters might respond to him and Sullivan, both of whom had attracted criticism towards the end of their tenure at . He was also asked how he would react if he crossed paths with Pannu at the match, and replied: "I'm a big boy, I'll shake his hand. But will I invite him out for dinner? No." Birmingham told West Ham in their earlier email that banning Gold was "the appropriate action to take" because of his comments. The club have since claimed that the decision to upgrade the ban to all areas of the stadium was "made with regards to Mr Gold's safety as much as anything" as Birmingham weighed up the risk of a hostile reaction from their supporters. Pannu has confirmed he will attend the game at Upton Park in February if invited. This petty squabble could run and run.