David Sullivan, the co-owner of Birmingham City, who had said the alleged racist abuse of Dwight Yorke was "not the crime of the century", yesterday poured petrol on the flames by saying the striker was free to leave the club if he was unhappy.

Yorke, who was signed by the manager Steve Bruce on a one-year contract worth £28,000 a week in August, has started only six games for the club, scoring two goals.

Earlier Birmingham's other co-owner and chairman David Gold expressed sympathy with Yorke, saying that as a Jew he had suffered abuse when growing up in the east end of London.

In the afternoon Sullivan went on local radio station BBC WM to make his comments while the manager Steve Bruce spoke to Sky. Bruce revealed Yorke would be pressing charges after being interviewed by Lancashire police yesterday.

"We're 100 per cent behind Dwight and the action he took. We'll let the police authorities deal with it and do as they see fit," Bruce said. "Two police officers came down here and Dwight Yorke formally made a complaint against them (the Blackburn fans in question).

"We've all made huge efforts, especially Birmingham, a big, huge, multi-cultural city, and the last thing we want is to be having someone of Dwight Yorke's ability being racially abused because he's done more than most, he's graced the game, he's lit up the game for 10 or 12 years. The whole situation is sad. We are right behind him."

Two men in their early 20s were charged yesterday with a racially aggravated public order offence and will appear before Blackburn magistrates today. Sullivan insisted his critics had missed the point of his remarks.

"Let's see this in proportion," he said. "If someone wanted to call me a 'white honky' or worse, as opposed to punching me in the face or robbing my house, they could call me a 'white honky' as much as they wanted to. That's what I was getting across.

"I am not a racist. And I don't even have to defend myself from such an accusation. My business partners, the Gold brothers, are Jewish, my solicitor is Jewish, my accountant is Indian and one of my best friends is black."

He added: "If Dwight wants to leave Birmingham City then I can't hold him back. Good luck to him. If he's not happy, then I can't do anything about that and it's unfortunate." ...