Oldham Athletic: Financially-troubled League Two club's battle at Boundary Park

The North Stand at Oldham Athletic's Boundary Park home is named after Joe Royle - one of the club's greatest managers.

Now if Royle, currently on the board at nearby Wigan Athletic, made the short journey down the M61 and M62 to Boundary Park on a matchday, he would not be able to sit in the stand that bears his name. In fact, no one would.

The stand's recent closure is the culmination of a long-running dispute at the League Two club that sees them face the threat of administration and a 12-point penalty, a winding-up petition and allegations being made to the police by the club in relation to transactions dating back some nine years.

But how did things reach this stage? BBC Sport looks at the battle rumbling on at Boundary Park that is overshadowing their season.

The origins of the crisis

The present day problems at Oldham stem from going into administration in 2004, when businessmen Simon Blitz, Simon Corney and Danny Gazal rescued the club that year through a new company.

Oldham Athletic (2004) AFC Ltd took over the football club and, through their company Brass Bank, Blitz and Gazal bought the stadium, which had previously been rented to the club from its then owners, including an Oldham Council partnership.

Blitz and Gazal sold their shares in the club to Corney in 2011, leaving Corney as owner and chairman. However, Blitz and Gazal still own Boundary Park via Brass Bank.

It is the redeveloped North Stand, which opened in 2015 and includes a gym and the Oldham Event Centre (OEC) - also owned by Blitz - which is now at the forefront of a messy dispute between the club, landlord and council.

In 2010, Blitz bought a site in Failsworth, known as the Lancaster Club, through another company on the basis that Oldham Council would provide land adjacent required to complete construction.

When that land could not be provided, the council agreed to buy the site from Blitz, eventually paying £3.1m for it.

The council asked that the deal be structured as a back-to-back transaction involving the club. Blitz would sell the land to the club, who would then immediately sell it on to the council, with the money paid to Blitz's company to recoup its investment. That deal took place and was registered at the Land Registry.

At the same time, the council separately agreed to pay a further £1.08m directly to the club and, in addition, granted a further £700,000 to Oldham to fund a new stand at Boundary Park.

The grant was provided in return for a community scheme, accommodation for the Community Trust, as well as other community programmes run by the club.

Building work on the stand began in 2011 and Blitz put in around £4m to fund it before giving an extra £350,000 in 2015 to help the club with its debt relief.

The club have now alleged this money was not in fact used to build the new stand, although they do not say how they believe that money was used or how the North Stand was actually paid for.

The closure of the stand

In January the club made a complaint to Greater Manchester Police over the "financial conduct" of former owners, but the police are continuing to review the situation and "establish whether an investigation is necessary".

Later that month the North Stand, renamed in August 2018 as The Joe Royle Stand, was shut by the local safety advisory group (SAG) until further notice.

Damaged fire doors and lack of CCTV in the North Stand were cited by the group as reasons for the closure, as well as the absence of an operational safety agreement in place between the OEC and the club. As a result, the OEC is not currently open on matchdays.

The North Stand is owned by Brass Bank, but on matchdays the safety certificate says the club operate the stand two hours before kick-off until one hour after full-time - yet there is a dispute between the two on how it is run.

In late 2019, the club and the OEC each submitted agreements to the SAG but they differ over the right of the club to impose restrictions on how the OEC is operated and who can be admitted to it on matchdays.

With two different safety agreements in place, the council had asked both parties to talk and decide where guidelines can be managed and matched. The OEC offered to meet with the Latics and the SAG to resolve matters, but this meeting was declined by the club unless the OEC first signed its version of the agreement.

An ongoing dispute

Moroccan football agent Abdallah Lemsagam took over the then League One club from Corney in January 2018, but the club's 21-year stay in the English third tier came to an end four months later when they were relegated.

In 2016 after the North Stand had been completed, Brass Bank and the club entered into a 'Deed of Surrender' in order to grant a new lease to the club for the North Stand, with separate leases for the OEC and the gym.

Under the new lease, the annual rent for the North Stand was set at £1 while that for the remainder of the existing lease over the other three stands was reduced from £150,000 to £100,000.

Blitz also treated £3.8m owed to Brass Bank by the club as satisfied and no longer payable.

Some of the current impasse revolves around Lemsagam claiming he struggles to understand why any rent on the ground is payable when the previous regime under Corney did not.

Blitz says any agreement with Corney to pay a reduced rent was at his own decision.

Lemsagam initially paid the rent on the ground for the first six months of his ownership. However, he has withheld payments since then and the club currently owes approximately £200,000 in rent alone.

The 'real risk' of administration

When the Moroccan came to the club, Oldham also owed £520,000 from previous loans given by Blitz which are secured by a debenture, with £270,000 of that figure repaid upon Lemasgam's arrival.

The balance was not paid when due and is currently gathering interest at a default rate of 25% per annum. The total amount currently outstanding is £330,000, with interest continuing to run.

This is outstanding debt and the unpaid rent could trigger administration - with Brass Bank on Friday serving the club with a notice to the court to appoint administrators.

Blitz's lawyer Jonathon Crook told BBC Radio Manchester there is a "real risk" of the club going into administration, something director Barry Owen has dismissed as an "absolute nonsense".

"My owner has got this club into a financial situation that's been better than it has been for years but there's no sign this club will go into administration," Owen told BBC Radio Manchester.

But Crook countered: "I'm afraid [the threat of administration] isn't nonsense. The club owes a lot of money and apparently doesn't want to pay it and isn't offering any solutions.

"It's one of those situations where the ball is in the club's court. They have to decide if they actually do want a discussion and if they do, we'd be happy to have that but if they don't then we are where we are."

In a statement given to BBC Radio Manchester, Oldham Council said their dealings with the club "have been transparent and well documented".

It continued: "We have fully co-operated with them, and will also do so with Greater Manchester Police if asked."