As Oyston exits,EFL need to show mercy

OWEN Oyston’s demise at Blackpool was swift, brutal and ruthlessly executed. No victory has ever tasted sweeter to England’s most long-suffering supporters.

Ten years of neglect. Ten years of contempt. Ten years of petty litigation, puerile insults and shameless profiteering. All over in the time it takes to say ‘You’re fired’.

If only those supporters could have seen the 85-yearold’s face when Blackpool’s receivers kicked him out.

For the last decade, Oyston and his family ran the club as a cash cow and fiefdom, suing anybody who dared to criticise.

Even fans weren’t immune. Just ask Frank Knight, the hard-up pensioner who was ordered to pay £20,000 over comments posted on Facebook. Thankfully, a crowdfunding appeal covered the damage.

On the pitch, a succession of managers were handed budgets barely sufficient to fund a Sunday League side.

At one stage, former manager Gary Bowyer grew so dismayed at the state of Blackpool’s training ground that he personally paid to hire a site in Preston.

Despite the protests, the relegations, the dwindling sponsorship, Oyston clung on, protected by the bodyguards he hired to repel irate supporters and the impotence of EFL ownership regulations to remove him from post. He seemed untouchable.

But in November 2017, the shield evaporated. Sued for unfair prejudice by minority shareholder Valeri Belokon, a High Court judge publicly accused Oyston of ‘illegitimately stripping’ the club following promotion to the Premier League in 2009.

Some £26.7m was paid into businesses affiliated with the Oyston family - payments described by the judge as “disguised dividends”.

Oyston was ordered to buy Belokon out for £31m. When he didn’t, the courts appointed receivers to sell the club. Now, 31 years after he first seized control, the pimp-alike tyrant is gone.

It is hard to overstate just what a joyous moment this is for Blackpool. With Oyston at the helm, the club was an abandoned ship, doomed to a bleak and ruinous drift before eventually crumbling to driftwood.

Crumbling

Whatever happens, the prevailing feeling amongst supporters is that any new owner cannot be worse - a case of anyone but the devil you know.

They are probably right, but a little circumspection wouldn’t hurt. For a start, receivers David Rubin & Partners have already hinted that the largest offer will be the most successful. Their goal, after all, is to get Belokon’s money back.

Nevertheless, they have a moral and ethical duty to act in the interests of the club and their supporters.

The EFL, too, must use what limited discretion they have under the owners’ and directors’ test to steer the club towards a suitable custodian. Finally, it is incumbent on Shaun Harvey and his board to waive the 12-point penalty normally imposed on clubs who enter receivership.

A points penalty is designed to mitigate against any competitive advantage a club gains by writing off debts - think Plymouth paying creditors less than 1p in the pound.

Yet it is Oyston himself who owes money to Belokon, not the football club. Other than ridding themselves of a parasitical owner, Blackpool aren’t gaining any advantage, nor welching on any debts.

Receivership was a means to an end - an end that both the EFL and the wider football fraternity desired.

To dock points now would be tantamount to giving Oyston one last spiteful victory - and nobody should grant him that.