Blackpool’s demise makes a mockery of football’s fit and proper persons test | David Conn

The Oystons’ stewardship of the club has left so much to be desired and the idea the Football League is powerless because of an outdated rule must be addressed

After the devastating, 163-page ruling of a high court judge that Owen Oyston and his son Karl, the owners of Blackpool football club, “illegitimately stripped” the club of £26.77m and operated “with great prejudice” to it, where to start with the implications? Perhaps, for a moment, by putting to one side the damning assessments themselves – that “the Oyston side enriched itself, prejudiced Blackpool FC and behaved in a discriminatory manner towards the other members of the club” – and the grave question of what happens next to Blackpool now the Oystons have to pay £31.27m to the 20% shareholder Valeri Belokon whom they “unfairly prejudiced”.

Consider, more broadly, the significance of this case for all of England’s football clubs and their supporters, and the inadequacy it highlights of the rules including the much-derided “fit and proper persons test” for owners and directors, which are intended to protect them.

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