The future of Oldham Athletic appears to be under threat after their plans for a new stadium in Failsworth ended up in ruins.

Latics owner Simon Corney has threatened to take the club away from the town and has placed the blame squarely at the door of the council.

Town hall bosses say they still want to help find a new home for the League One promotion hopefuls, who are enjoying a new lease of life under Paul Dickov, but claim the club are refusing to speak to them.

Here, reporter Mike Keegan looks at both side's arguments and finds a glimmer of hope that could break the stalemate keeping a dark cloud over Boundary Park.

LATICS owner Simon Corney says there is no way the League One outfit can survive unless they sell their Boundary Park home of over 100 years and its surrounding land and move somewhere else.

Town hall bosses proposed to hand over land close to Broadway in Failsworth.  Plans were drawn up, glitzy images of a 12,000 all-seater venue were showcased and details of proposed cinemas, bowling alleys and a tram stop were released.

The club reportedly spent £3m acquiring nearby land along with £2m on designs and surveys.

But in a devastating ruling, the Charity Commission declared the land could not be used for a  stadium and took a swipe at the council’s planning department.

A seething Corney, having poured millions into the doomed project, lambasted the administration, vowed he could not work with them and said he was looking at taking the club out of the town. He said he was taking legal advice and could end up suing the authority for misguiding them with regards to buying the nearby land.

But in a frank interview, days after the club’s highest gate of the season  – 8,564 (albeit paying £2 entry), Corney appeared to offer an olive branch to the council.

He said: “We’ve had enough. I’ve spoken to other authorities within the OL postcode who would be happy to have us. But I can’t stress enough that I do not want that.

“Yes I’ve said I won’t speak to them (the current Oldham council administration). I don’t want to go through another 30-odd meetings to keep someone in a job and not get anywhere. But if someone from the council was to come to us with a plan and say this will definitely happen I would listen.

“They need to prove that they want professional sport in this town because it doesn’t look like it at the moment and it doesn’t feel like it’s a priority for them."

Corney revealed that he, along with his two business partners who pulled out last year, has so far pumped £14m into the Latics. He said selling Boundary Park and moving elsewhere would see them recoup roughly a third of that outlay.

“People say I just want to cut my losses and leave. Believe me, if I wanted to do that I could. But I don’t, despite what’s happened. What I will not do is stay at Boundary Park, support its upkeep and see us die a death within five years because that will happen and I will take no pride in telling people that I told you so.

“I want to put something in place that will be here for the next 50 to 100 years but I'm not prepared to waste our time.”

TOWN hall chiefs say they have taken the criticism from the Failsworth debacle ‘on the chin’ and have revealed that there will be no appeal against the Charity Commission’s verdict, thus rendering the project dead in the water.

Council leader Howard Sykes revealed they are determined to keep the club in the town and said they wanted to speak to Latics officials, but claimed their pleas were falling on deaf ears.

However, in light of Mr Corney’s comments he said they would write to the club and urge dialogue.

Coun Sykes added: “We would love to help and we want to. But the club called off all contact and said they couldn’t work with this administration.

“There was supposed to be a meeting on Wednesday but they told us they weren’t coming.

“Our door is always open and it does not cost anything to talk. We will be writing to them to see if we can look at other options and find alternatives.

“The last thing we want is a tit-for-tat argument because that does not help anybody.”

Rumours have been rife that a section of land close to the M60 in Hollinwood has been earmarked as an alternative site.

But we understand that the club may be reluctant to splash out again.

Council chief executive Charlie Parker said that the council ‘knows how important the club is to the borough’.

He added: “We are continuing to try and assist the club’s attempts to relocate from Boundary Park. When we agreed to help them our overriding motivation was – and remains – to facilitate finding a permanent home for Oldham Athletic in this borough.

“We all understand the importance of Latics to the borough and share this frustration, but it is crucial that we remain focussed on forging a way forward. There is no merit in us wasting time now fighting a war of words in the media about how we got here.

“In consultation with council members – plus Oldham Athletic Football Club – we hope to move forward quickly with our next steps and will make this public as soon as possible.”

What do you think? Have your say.