Mayor leads fans taskforce
IT’S HOPED GROUP WILL ENABLE SUPPORTERS TO TAKE CONTROL OF OLDHAM ATHLETIC
ANDY Burnham is spearheading a new taskforce which is hoped will enable fans to take ownership of Oldham Athletic FC.
The Greater Manchester Mayor is bringing together fan groups to help with a community share offer, where supporters would be able to buy a stake in the beleaguered club.
Latics were relegated from the Football League for the first time in their history in April. In the process, they became the first club to have played in the Premier League to slip into the non-league.
The 2-1 home defeat to Salford which sealed their fate had to be abandoned due to protests against the club’s owner, Moroccan former football agent Abdallah Lemsagam, who is deeply unpopular with supporters angry at his stewardship of the club since he took over in 2018.
With 12 minutes left to play of the Salford match, hundreds of fans ran onto the Boundary Park pitch, holding up a banner that read ‘GET OUT OF OUR CLUB,’ and refused to leave.
It took over an hour to clear the pitch meaning the game had to be shelved. The remainder of the game was played behind closed doors several hours later.
Mr Lemsagam indicated in January this year he would be willing to sell the club. Since the club’s relegation, the Oldham Athletic Supporters’ Foundation announced they were fundraising to try to buy Boundary Park, which is not owned by Mr Lemsagam, as well as working on a community share offer to try and acquire a stake.
And Mr Burnham has now announced he has put together a taskforce which is hoped by giving them political and practical support may help them in the endeavour.
He said: “Sadly, as we have seen all too recently in Greater Manchester at Bury, new owners armed with little more than empty promises can come into clubs at the point of crisis and make matters worse.
“Football clubs lie at the heart of our communities and require a community response that provides a long-term solution. Fans and local communities can’t be left high and dry again. We are determined not to let this happen with Oldham.
“The Latics are at the heart of the Oldham community. To protect its future the club should, ideally, be in the hands of the community, not private individuals. Supporter groups are discussing plans for a community share offer that will enable the fans and the wider Oldham community to come together and secure that future.
“If successful, the club’s future should be secured for the next 100 years and beyond.”
The group, involving Co-operatives UK which is supported by Co-operative Bank, and the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) are calling for all a number of reforms that would given fans more of a say in how their clubs are run, including giving them a right to invest meaning they are afforded the protection of company law as shareholders.