OLDHAM Athletic are hoping to claim ownership of the North Stand at Boundary Park, after starting legal proceedings against landlords Brass Bank.

There has been a long-standing dispute between the club’s former owner, Simon Blitz - who owns Brass Bank, and current owner Abdallah Lemsagam over rental arrangements and usage.

Now Lemsagam, who completed his takeover of Latics in 2018, is aiming to wrestle control of the stand so that matchday and all other income goes to the club.

Neither party has confirmed the development, but a ‘part 7’ claim - a dispute over facts - has been lodged by Oldham Athletic (2004) AFC Ltd with Brass Bank Limited.

The ongoing problems at Oldham emanate from when the club went into administration in 2004. Businessmen Simon Blitz and Danny Gazal, who own Brass Bank, rescued the club that year through a new company.

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

In 2011, Simon Corney became Latics’ owner and chairman when he bought Blitz and Gazal’s shares. However, Blitz and Gazal retained ownership of Boundary Park via Brass Bank.

The redeveloped North Stand (renamed The Joe Royle Stand), which opened in 2015 and includes a gym and the Blitz-owned Oldham Event Centre (OEC), came to the forefront of a messy dispute between the club, landlord and council.

In 2010, Blitz bought a site in Failsworth, via a separate company, on the basis that Oldham Council would provide land adjacent required for the club to relocate.

When that land could not be provided, the council agreed to buy the site from Blitz, eventually paying £3.1m for it and requesting that the deal was 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 also 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 to include 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 spent around £4m to fund it before giving an extra £350,000 in 2015 to help the club with its debt relief.

The club went on to allege the money was not in fact used to build the new stand, although they did not say how they believed that money was used or how the North Stand was actually paid for.

In January 2020, the club made a complaint to Greater Manchester Police over the “financial conduct” of former owners, but the investigation was shelved, while subsequent attempts to revisit this have not pursued.

The stand was shut by the local safety advisory group (SAG), and was not reopened to supporters until the start of this season, after last season was player behind closed doors due to the pandemic.