Following the declaration of bankruptcy by Belgian club Oostende, there have been calls for former Barnsley co-chairman Paul Conway to be banned from football globally.
Conway was voted off the League One club’s board upon relegation in 2022, effectively ending his influence at Oakwell. He retains a modest ownership, which has been gradually diminished by investments from current board members. Barnsley was part of a multi-team ownership structure under Conway, with New City Capital and Pacific Media Group owning the Reds, Oostende, Swiss club Thun, Nancy in France, Danish side Esbjerg, Den Bosch (Netherlands), Kaiserslautern (Germany), and Tychy (Poland). The Football League’s allegations against Conway and Chien Lee are still being handled after Barnsley raised concerns about the pair with the governing body. The provisional administrator who will file for bankruptcy at Oostende on June 3 has questioned if Conway should be allowed to stay in the game after blaming his “mismanagement” for the 120-year-old Belgian club’s demise.
Esbjerg was deemed insolvent by a bankruptcy court in April and reorganized without Conway.
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Van Oosterwyck, who took over as administrator in January, has denied Conway’s claims that he helped facilitate a takeover by Apex Capital Group that would have allowed it to keep playing in the Challenger Pro League, Belgium’s second tier, where they finished 13th out of 16 last season. He accused the American of “making exuberant and changing demands,” which he said last week turned into an offer to sell his shares for one euro plus further £514,000 as soon as a takeover was finalized, charges Conway denies.
Oostende is reported to have debts of roughly £8.6 million, making their shares worthless in van Oosterwyck’s view.
Conway is described as “one of the main culprits” by the club’s shareholders, accusing him of “complete mismanagement and financial malpractice” and pointing to the £4.3 million signing of Nancy’s Mickael Biron in 2022, which he claimed was done so the Championnat club could meet its financial requirements for a licence.
He further claimed Conway had not kept his promises to send funding to Oostende. The facts are in dispute, although van Oosterwyck stated that he had “filed several claims against him and his companies” seeking damages.
“The question is whether this man should not be banned from international football,” he stated. “He plays with clubs as if they are nothing and every emotion is foreign to him.”
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