Owen Oyston’s daughter attended meeting about Blackpool’s future despite being removed from board

Former Blackpool chairwoman Natalie Christopher attended the English Football League’s quarterly meeting in Derby on Thursday despite being removed from the League One club’s board on Monday.

Christopher was meant to be prevented from joining the meeting as she no longer has any role with the club her father Owen Oyston controlled from 1988 to last week.

That was when receiver Paul Cooper took the reins after being appointed by a judge to sell the club in order to settle the Oyston family’s £25million debt to former club president Valeri Belokon.

Cooper sent club secretary Steve Edwards to Derby to represent Blackpool and Press Association Sport understands there is now considerable annoyance at Bloomfield Road about Christopher’s involvement in the meeting.

Owen Oyston refused to sell Blackpool until the matter was taken out of his hands

The EFL declined to comment on what role she played on Thursday, saying only that it is up to the clubs to decide who they send to their meetings.

The receiver’s appointment brought an end to a remarkable chapter in the club’s history, which started with the joy of promotion to the Premier League in 2010 but degenerated into a bitter boardroom dispute, three relegations and a long boycott by fans.

Christopher’s stint as chairwoman was symptomatic of the club’s crisis as she replaced her half-brother Karl last February after he fell out with his father Owen, and the pair are still embroiled in a legal dispute over unpaid wages.

Throughout all this, Owen Oyston refused to sell the club until the matter was taken out of his hands.

The unexpected continuation of Blackpool’s Oyston era at the EFL meeting suggests he and his family have not come to terms with the court ruling.

Blackpool’s immediate future was among the items for discussion at the meeting in Derby

They will have to, though, as Companies House has now listed the ‘termination of appointment’ notices for Christopher and Owen Oyston, publicly confirming their removal from Blackpool’s board of directors.

While they belong to the club’s past, Blackpool’s immediate future was among the items for discussion in Derby, as the appointment of a receiver could trigger the 12-point penalty applied to clubs that experience insolvency.

Blackpool’s case, however, is more complicated than most as the receiver has been appointed to settle the former owner’s debt to a creditor, as opposed to the club’s inability to meet its bills. In fact, it is understood the club is owed money by other Oyston businesses.

That does not necessarily mean Blackpool will escape punishment, though, as the league will have to establish the nature of those intra-group payments and whether the receivership process is enabling the club to shed any of its debts.

A final decision is expected at the next EFL board meeting on March 6.