ON THE ROAD: Oldham is at war with itself and they've hit rock bottom
ON THE ROAD: Fake coffins, protesters dressed as clowns and a fan shut-out… Oldham Athletic is the club at war with itself and in danger of disappearing down the plughole as they’ve hit rock bottom
- Oldham supporters have been protesting the Lemsagam brothers’ ownership
- Some fans were locked-out of the Hartlepool game on Sunday, some boycotted
- The club has seen nine managers including Man United icon Paul Scholes leave
- Oldham sit bottom of League Two and the club is now at war with itself
Oldham, we have a problem. The club that hasn’t been letting its own fans in is stopping reporters from getting out.
‘If you leave the stadium to watch the demonstration, you can’t come back in,’ explains an over-officious steward.
Health and safety, you see. Club policy. When it’s pointed out that no other club in England shares this policy towards the media, he smiles. ‘You haven’t been to Boundary Park before, have you?’
Oldham Athletic supporters are desperately trying to reclaim their club form the owners
Fans left a coffin outside the entrance and showed-up dressed as clowns to show their fury
I have actually and it’s always struck me as a wonderful old club run by friendly, genuine people. Still is.
Sadly, right now it’s at war with itself and in danger of disappearing down the plughole, which is why we find ourselves here on a sunny afternoon in September for a goalless draw against Hartlepool and, yes, a demonstration.
When common sense prevails we still aren’t allowed back through Gate 3, but are instead taken on a tour of the main stand that hasn’t changed since it was built in 1913.
A warren of narrow corridors and staircases that end in a bar so close to the dressing-rooms that you can smell the liniment. Only today it’s not selling alcohol. Health and safety, you see.
The plan to leave via the main entrance fails because it’s blocked by protesters – and a coffin – so we eventually exit through a side gate and onto the same road where we started.
One of the Premier League founding clubs, Oldham find themselves bottom of League Two
The old ground is in disrepair while the Lemsagam brothers have been through nine managers
What greets us there are more than 500 fans demonstrating against owner Abdallah Lemsagam, a Dubai-based Moroccan football agent, and his brother Mohamed, the club’s sporting director.
Since Lemsagam took over in 2018, Oldham have sunk to the bottom of League Two. Thirty years after Joe Royle’s team reached the top-flight and became founding members of the Premier League – a tale told in the excellent new book This Is How It Feels: An English Football Miracle – Oldham are in danger of dropping out of the Football League altogether.
The club have been through nine managers including Paul Scholes who quit after 31 days citing interference from the owner. Oldham are operating under a transfer embargo and there have been numerous stories of players and bills not being paid.
Many protesters are in orange clown wigs because they feel their club has become a circus.
Morgan Bocking, a 21-year-old fan, is wearing the full outfit and has just helped carry the mock coffin bearing the letters RIP OAFC to the front door followed by the Grim Reaper.
‘I thought if Abdallah is acting like a clown then I’d come as a clown as well,’ he says.
Some of these fans are boycotting games but others haven’t been able to get in because the club temporarily suspended ticket sales following recent demonstrations inside the ground.
Some fans were locked out by the suspension of ticket sales, some decided to boycott
Oldham supporters now face dropping out of the Football League entirely this season
Paul Norbury is holding a placard that says: ‘Fan since 1963. Never locked out before. Just go, you pillocks’.
‘We’ll be here in a month’s time again and I reckon they’ll keep turning the fans away,’ he says.
Brian Butler, whose brother Dermot passed away in March, had planned to celebrate what would have been his 52nd birthday in the impressive new Joe Royle Stand, but the ticket problems and alcohol ban made that impossible.
‘We’d probably have put £1,000 in the club today,’ says Brian.
‘The saddest thing is we couldn’t meet up at the ground. My brother loved the club with a passion and watched Oldham at all 92 Football League grounds.’
The protest has been organised by fans’ group Push the Boundary whose spokesman is Steve Shipman.
‘We’ve always said ‘at least we’re not Bury’ or ‘it could be worse, we could be Stockport’. Now we are that club,’ says Shipman.
Oldham boss Keith Curle is the current man trying to steer the club which is at war with itself
A plane circles the stadium in the first half trailing a banner that reads ‘Al & Mo Time To Go’ but they aren’t here to see it. Abdallah is thought to be in Dubai and Mohamed is in Germany. The directors’ box is empty because the club secretary has resigned and other members of the board have been told to keep a low profile.
A healthy crowd of 3,934 is proof that not all fans share the same view, and some stop us to say so.
Meanwhile, manager Keith Curle – who observes the protest from a top window – is caught in the middle.
Has he met the owner yet? ‘No, but it’s not a dating site,’ smiles Curle. ‘I have good dialogue with him.
‘When I went to Carlisle it was very similar. I walked out onto the pitch for the first time and everybody was facing the directors’ box. It does take time to turn heads.’
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