Soccer dream over for Hong Kong businessmen Carson Yeung and Balram Chainrai

Ask fans of English Premier League clubs Chelsea and Manchester City what they think of their foreign owners, and they'll cheer them to the rafters.

Cash lavished on players by Russian magnate Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and the Abu Dhabi oil barons at City has transformed their clubs into champions.

But ask the fans of Birmingham City and Portsmouth the same question, and they'll respond with a chorus of boos.

And what do these two clubs have in common, apart from languishing in the lower leagues of English football?

They have both been controlled by Hong Kong businessmen - Carson Yeung Ka-sing at City and Balram Chainrai, whose tenure at Portsmouth is over but who is still locked in a multimillion-dollar financial dispute with the club.

Both have been dogged by controversy. And to say they haven't shown Hong Kong in the best light when it comes to backing English soccer clubs is an understatement.

It has got to the point where the supporters' group at City, the Blues Trust, has written an open letter to the Sunday Morning Post outlining its concerns.