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Tangerine nightmare?

Until I read a long investigative report in this weekend's Financial Times magazine, I wasn't up to speed about recent events at Blackpool Football Club.   I was familiar with how Tangerine fans had suffered under the Oyston regime, but I assumed that things had settled down even if performances on the pitch had been a bit up and down.

What I didn't know was that the current owner, Simon Sadler, was facing criminal charges for insider trading in Hong Kong and might put up the club for sale.

Sadler is the typical 'local boy made good' from humble origins who bought the club and stadium for £8.2m, partly because he felt guilty about leaving home and making so much money.   He set up 'a hedge fund in Hong Kong and established himself as one of the most powerful players in a niche of global finance.'

The article is written by the Pink Un's Asia financial correspondent and it is clear that she is not familiar with the world of football, despite some local colour and her own northern origins: https://www.ft.com/content/44203051-afcf-4c59-b758-b588bb8aae5f

What we are entering here is the world of what the late Susan Strange called 'Casino Capitalism' where fortunes are made and lost on what are essentially bets.  I know something about hedge funds and short selling, but this article introduced me to block trading, 'wall-cross' arrangements and ADR arbitrage.  It is a world of larger than life characters who often turn on each other when things start to go wrong, as seems to have happened here.

My interpretation of the article is that Sadler's business may have got out of its depth with some large trades.  Moreover, these days 'Hong Kong does not have the freewheeling reputation it had when Sadler first arrived.'  The authorities are ready to crack down.

The court proceedings are in progress so Sadler cannot comment, but the article argues that the mood among fans is not as low as it was in the Oyston era.  That would be hard, and Sadler may be as much sinned against as sinning.   But what will happen is uncertain.

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