In July 2007, McManaman was named executive director of Carson Yeung's Hong Kong-listed company Grandtop International Holdings Ltd, which subsequently took a 29.9% stake in Premier League side Birmingham City. In August 2009, Yeung confirmed that once his proposed takeover of Birmingham City went through, a role at St Andrew's would be given to McManaman, although he did not specify what role that would be. By 2010, McManaman was appointed as a board director at Birmingham City, with fellow director Peter Pannu citing McManaman as being present when some critical board decisions were made – a claim which McManaman denied.