Birmingham City president Carson Yeung's £59m money-laundering trial has been delayed until Spring 2013.
A Hong Kong court has agreed to postpone the trial to allow for Yeung's defence team to gather further evidence.
District court judge Douglas Yau agreed to defer the trial date to April 29 next year following a request by Yeung's lawyer for more time to gather more evidence and better prepare their defence.
He said that Yeung had been "living in a state of limbo".
"The prosecution's allegation is simply the fact that he was a hairdresser and now he has so much money,"
Joseph Tse, a member of Yeung's defence team, told the district court packed with reporters in the southern Chinese city.
"Before 2001 he and his father were people of affluence. They had wealth and assets in China," Tse said, adding that they had owned a hotel on the mainland.
