Probe centres on player payments say Birmingham

LONDON (Reuters) - A police investigation of Birmingham City's co-owner David Sullivan and director Karren Brady centres on payments to two players and a football agent, the English Premier League club said on Thursday.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the club said there was no allegation that any director of the club had benefited financially from the deals or that there was any material financial impact on the club.

It added that the club and its directors were cooperating fully with the police in the investigation and had asked the London Stock Exchange to resume trading in the company's shares, which was suspended on Thursday morning.

Birmingham issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Sullivan and Brady "were invited to cooperate with a City of London Police investigation and have happily done so."

City of London Police said earlier on Wednesday that two people had been released on bail, without naming them, after they were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting, as part of the force's investigation into football corruption.

Seven other people remain on bail in connection with the investigation, the police said.

Last November, Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was arrested, though no charges have followed.

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips/Marc Jones, editing by Rex Gowar)