An angry group of West Bromwich Albion shareholders have hired a major international law firm to lead their case over a controversial £3.7 million loan from the club to their former owner.Shareholders for Albion, the group which represents many of the club’s 430 minority shareholders, has appointed Gowling WLG, a respected firm of lawyers.Gowling has already written to every West Brom director, signalling that the shareholders intend to continue their fight over the 2014 loan from the club to its holding company, then owned solely by former majority shareholder Jeremy Peace, who sold his stake with the loan outstanding.S4A are demanding the repayment of the loan by new cash instead of via a dividend, which has been suggested as a possible method of clearing the debt.The debt now stands at more than £5 million with interest and is held by West Brom’s current Chinese ownership, led by Guochuan Lai.The letter from Gowling also re-states the shareholders’ demand for a full inquiry into the circumstances of the original loan, which they believe was used by Peace to increase his own stake — a claim he has denied.Former Albion CEO Xu Ke, known as ‘Ken’, had pledged to repay the loan, either with a cash injection or via a dividend, by the end of February but he has since been replaced by Ron Gourlay.(Photo: Getty Images)
