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Blitz, Gazal walk away from Latics
Reporter: KEVIN RICHARDSON
Date online: 06 July 2010
‘Constant battle’ takes its toll on outgoing chairman
ATHLETIC chairman Simon Blitz has stepped down from the role, blaming “personal and economic pressure” for his decision.
He has left the board at Boundary Park with immediate effect. Business colleague Danny Gazal has also relinquished his position as a director on the board.
Mr Blitz says he has done all he can do to take the club forward.
In a statement released today, he said: “It is with great regret that due to personal and economic pressure I have decided to end my seven-year association with Oldham Athletic.
“I have met lots of nice people and enjoyed my time, but I have found it a constant battle and uphill struggle more recently, and I don’t feel that I am able to give the club’s supporters the contribution they are looking for in the future.
“Last season I invested a further substantial amount of money into the club, and with reduced income from season ticket sales this summer the demands on me were becoming too great.
“Simon Corney will take over the reins as chairman and I know that, along with Alan Hardy, Ian Hill and Barry Owen, they will be working hard to try to ensure the club can move forward and I would ask that all fans give them, and manager Paul Dickov, their full support.”
Mr Blitz, along with Gazal and Simon Corney, saved Athletic from football oblivion when they took over in late 2003.
The trio, financed by Mr Blitz and Mr Gazal, assumed control at Boundary Park in a buy-out which, at the time, cost them £7 million.
But the ‘Three Amigos’, as they were christened by the supporters, have now become one, and Athletic have a board of four in Corney, chief executive Hardy, and directors Hill and Owen,
Mr Corney, who will move up from his role as managing director to become chairman, said: “Simon stepping down is obviously a major disappointment and it means that we all, including the fans, have to work a lot harder to try to make the club successful.
“We have an enthusiastic manger in Paul who is keen to make a big impact and I know that he and his coaching team will be looking to provide the fans with the kind of football that they have missed recently.”
Comments
This is a serious worry. Mr Corney, Gazal and Blitz, have done a great job keeping the club running upto now. But one thing you must ask, is why did they keep Penney on so long. By Xmas it was clear he was a disaster and that the fans were beginning to drift away. If they had dumped him then it may have averted the mass exodus. Many people have clearly not renewed the season tickets and it is no wonder. We are saddled with the poor players penney brought in, so there will be little room to move.
Oh Dear! Many thanks fellas and good luck. However, with my glass half empty nature it is a worrying development. Diggers and yellow hats on Boundary Park, no sod upturned at Failsworth, two Amigo's leaving into the sunset will my crystal balls be right? Oblivion! Aargghhh!! No, we must survive and prosper under Dickov and our lonely Amigo . . . C'mon Latics!
Where does this leave O>A>F>C> ?????? It would appear that there has been a major 'fall-out' and apart from Simon Corney there is no other benefactor left. Messrs Hill and Owen are only directors in name and have no substance so it would appear that the Blitz and Gazal defection leaves the club firmly entrenched in deep mire(and that is putting it mildly). Dickov will need a miracle to keep things afloat.
worse possible news unless you are ammypammy or oldham scotland.
well lets see if anybody will join our sinking ship now like the the 3 amigos did all them years ago.
bet pammy thinks they are walking away with a kings ransom eh.
nice 1 pam.
Well I just hope those fans who have walked away can put their money where their mouth is because thanks to your desertion no mug is going to come in and save YOUR club
Yes Mark, us "MUGS", who forked out week after week to watch pub football, I told you from the start what was on the cards and the people like you gloated. Most of his quote and reasoning can best be blamed on bad management, and i told you in earlier comments the reasons they would give...and as you say i know nothing...even though i am right i am not laughing, the cluib has nowhere to go, no ground a squad worth very little and can Mr Corney afford to run the club alone?
And as for hoping Mr Wardle will invest, you have got to be kidding.....like invest in what?, as it stands latics exhist in name only if the ground has already been sold. I was right all along.
So now they have walked away just like thousands of supporters.I wonder how much the collapse of the property market has to do with this.I think they were only in for this,the board of directors are only lightweight and need to be got rid of
always on the cards,,i never saw a problem in deloping "gods home" which is Boudary Park,,,it gotta be better than moving to failsworth and having a manchester post code,,we not want to be part of manchester,i know many people that stopped going for this reason alone,,lets face it we seen some rubbish footy in the past and stuck by the club but moving to that place was going too far for some
On 12th may 2010 Corney said in this paper the three amigos were fully committed to Latics.Now 8 weeks later this.
Latics need to get a benefacter and fast or i can see administration ahead. Time for the stay away fans to back the club or lose it.
Oldham Scotland the whole "I told you so" attitude only proves that your satisfied with the club being in the mire. It seems the problem is that people would rather sit and and moan about the way things are going than actively getting off their backside and doing something about it. Have any of those people who've walked away considered getting involved in the Supporters Trust and tried to actively challenge the board with their mismanagement? That's what Sheffield Wednesdys Trust does
Thanks guys for leaving us neck deep in it. Shame they didn't go before Mike Newton resigned to pump money into Port Vale.
Corney being in sole charge fills me with dread. 'Mr. Diplomacy' he ain't, and his record of appointing managers is dismal to say the least.
We've been shafted big time, tho no doubt Messrs Blitz and Gazal will be there for their share of the profits when BP is built on and we're playing our home games in Stoneleigh Park.
Mark, Trust Oldham is run by a yes man, and i have seen very little evidence that they do anything at all!, but agree with the directors. Most of this could have been resolved a couple of seasons ago, if anyone in the trust had a bit of backbone. and no i am not satisfied it has come to this, as this exactly what i did not want to see, but everyone has been happy to sit, watch and hope. And whats more very little help will come from supporters with the clubs ignorance of its fans.
After how Failsworth Athletic treated Oldham Roughyeds this is news that makes my day. What goes around comes around. Want to share Whitebank with us ?
Anybody got thoughts on this - OAFC is owned by all the directors, but Boundary Park is owned by Brassbank limited which is owned by Blitz and Gazal. Does that make Oldham officially homeless?
OLDHAM SCOTLAND. In all the time I have read the articles and on the OEC website, have I heard so much verbal diorrhea (not sure if I have spelt that right but only being a simple chap maybe you will understand this). Call yourself a fan. It's time you grew up and started backing the club insted of moan moan I can put all thinkgs right attitude. Get behind the club, it doesn't matter who is in charge, the club needs support. So put up or shut up we are fed up with your constant whinging.
O/M SCOT,AMMY, AND OTHERS OF YOU ILK, YOU TALK THROUGH YOUR REAR END. Without the 3 amigos we would have no club. If you want to moan, moan at the Council who have done nowt to assist the club in getting a new stadium. As for you seachel the same applies, Oldham council did the dirty on the rugby team and continue to let down anything to do with sport, so don't blame Latics,who at least loaned their ground to the rugby team, which is more than the Council offered.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish to thank Mr Blitz (whom I have spoken to in the past) and Mr Gazal for all their efforts on behalf of our club. I know that Mr Blitz definitely had the club at heart and was very frustrated with the delays OLDHAM COUNCIL have made in finding the club a new home.When I spoke to him I told him there was no problem with the 1st idea of a new stadium on Clayton Playing fields but it was well known by supporters that O.M.B.C.gave no help at all and short sighted residents in the area must be
(cont)- really pleased at the new housing estate to the rear of their houses when they could have had playing fields and a wide open space instead. Still I get the feeling that many people seem to have nothing else to do but moan and groan about OLDHAM ATHLETIC, who after all made the town known through the Premiership days, when those thousands of missing fans were attending Boundary Park fighting for tickets.Where are they now !!!!
As usual Oldham Scotland gets it completely wrong. A few months ago he stated that ‘TTA are only interested in lining their own pockets’. It now transpires that TTA have spent/invested around £12m of their own money in Latics over the last 7 years, with seemingly no financial return! To make a modest profit on their investment they would have to sell the club, BP and the Lancaster Club for over £13m! Do you think there will be any takers?
Anyway TTA, thanks for saving our club.
Oldham4life, it must stick in your throat seeing this, and myself being proven right, and directors leaving the club just like i said. Everything seemed to good to be true when they took over. but over the first 12 months you knew their business plan needed to much outside help to be viable, 80 million?.....if they would have had that sort of money they would have also invested in the team. I suppose you would have waited till the house had burnt down before applying the hose!.
You blame the council, but to be honest the council do not own the club, Mr Corney, Gazel and blitz do, so why do the council and public money have to bail them out for rank bad management?. Oldham Council did not ask them to sell the land nor did they tell them to sell the ground, they made that choice themselves totally short sighted, personally i would have waited till all funds was in place before making all the extravegant claims and trumpet blowing. as i said the maths never added up.
And Oldham4life get it right, Oldham Council bought latics ground and land, and loaned it back to the club, to help them out finanicially. so they did help the club. (the directors) saw what they thought was a quick buck!, and did not think of the public outcry, which has hampered their plans and has led us more or less to were we are now. so Oldham4life engage brain, before accusing others of the very thing you do.
Everybody - doesn't "Oldham Scotland" just make you sick ....
even now when he has got his wish he still thinks he is right thanks to the amigos we have had a club to support these last 7 yrs.
scotland obviously wasnt at BP when the buckets were going round then and wont be there again if and when it happens again.
he makes me sick and he still spouts they have raped our club.
jesus man this is getting serious now only 1 benefactor left and you want him out also.
you really cant be an oldham fan success would be nice but il setle for survival right now
" One benefactor left "
Your havin a laff surely? Corney's a puppet. All that's happened here is by severing their connections with the club Blitz and Gazal have publicly stated their intention to no longer fund the club, leaving us dangling on a string.
They still own the ground tho which is very worrying considering they now officialy have no involvement with Oldham Athletic, so they could pull the rug from under our feet anytime they want to.
Sell the land for what you paid and do one.
I agree with pablatic!
oldham4life you say oafc loaned boundary park to orlfc,,maybe they did but do not say is as though they did them a favour, they charged extortionate prices knowing the rugby club wanted to stay in the town,,i follow everything oldham and on trips with the rugby had to defend oafc on numerous occasions,,but in the end had to hold my hands up and agree with the rugby fans that it was no favour just a way of getting more money out of a club that never had it,but wanted to treat their fans right
Lets hope Mr Corney pulls something out of the bag here to save our club again.
For everyone on here that has written utter rubbish about TTA for quite some time, I seriously hope you are happy with yourselves as you have contributed to 2 of them walking away - WELL DONE.
To all the true supporters - Keep the Faith!!!
To all the 'true supporters' come on and lets dig deep if we realy care, instead of staying away, winging and hoping things get better lets show real committment to our club and buy a season ticket, even though some of us cant make it to many matches (like myself) I will be doing, no use saying 'keep the faith' sitting back and doing nothing about it, who do i make the check out to Mr Corney.
O/M Scot -- You need some help with your brain because it's certainly not functioning in your head. Please, a million times, on behalf of all TRUE OLDHAM FANS, disappear from all sites where Oldham are mentioned and give us all a rest. you obviously ain't no fan. that's for certain !!!!
"pats Oldham4life on head"....Quiet son and let the men talk!, true and loyal fans would not sit and watch their club go to ruin. and praise the people who do it!.
No axe to grind but I would not give to much OTT praise to the TTA - they did pledge their continuing support only weeks ago. So, why 'do a runner'? Businessmen know what risks are involved in any venture. They should, at least, have been honest and forthright whilst at the club (as I believe there is a lot we might not know and which will come to the fore at some stage in the future). I am sure the Oldham4life is not just a fan and his 'sacred support' of all things about TTA seems strange.
Let's not get too carried away on a tide of emotion regarding the departure of these two. At the end of the day, they, along with Simon Corney, are hard-headed businessmen who knew exactly what they were doing when they 'bought' into the club. The reason for their departure has nothing to do with the stay-away fans but rather their inability to bulldoze their BP ground redevelopment plan thhrough the right & proper planning process. Their insurance policy (plan B) was to retain ownership of BP.
SEACHEL YOU MAKE ME LAUGH WHEN YOU GET A DECENT CROWD AT THE WHITEBANK HELL HOLE THEN YOU CAN LAUGH AT LATICS, YOUR HIGHEST CROWD HAS BEEN 1100.
I am a supporter of both teams (though I live in Singapore) but the support at Whitebank has improved (significantly) and that can only be encouraging news for the club? If Latics don't get the ground sorted it won't be any better than Whitebank - now that would be Hell!
hey,,,chaddyender calm down sir,, seachel has a right to voice their opinion,,besides the whitebank hell????has plenty of room for improvement and it it is in oldham,,whereas our new ground (wenever that maybe) will have a manc post code and crowds will dwindle further unless we start winning games,,i do not like going down there but have got my season ticket but things on and off need to improve quickly,,,i been going 37 years and it never been so bad,,yes i also go to the rugby,,,OLDHAM fan c
Have Your Say
It had to come eventually as they can't keep spending money on what looks like a lost cause.....I just hope that a Wardle type is waiting in the wings and is the reason for this
exodus.
By oafc1955 @ 06/07/2010 12:15:07