Owen, Going, Gone?

BLACKPOOL OWNERSHIP

- Chris Walker

Football fans should not be celebrating a High Court judgement in the same way they might a play-off final win, yet that was the reality for Blackpool’s boycotting supporters recently. Last month saw the conclusion of a lengthy boardroom battle between majority owners the Oyston family and Valeri Belokon, the Latvian businessman who holds a 20 per cent stake in the club. The latter was claiming unfair prejudice and Justice Marcus Smith ordered that Belokon’s shares be acquired by the Oystons for £31.27 million as the remedy for his successful claim.

Friends and family, almost estranged by their collective boycott for the past couple of years, swapped excitable texts and emails at the prospect that this decision could see the back of the Oystons, allowing the stayaways to once more take their tangerine seats together at Bloomfield Road. The current owners have now been found by a High Court judge to have “illegitimately stripped” the club by paying themselves “disguised dividends” totalling £26.77m. Justice Smith determined there to have been a gentleman’s agreement between the two sides that would entitle Belokon to an equal share of the club, so awarded him the same dividends, plus his original £4.5m investment back.