Simon Sadler (born 18 October 1969) is a British businessman, founder of Segantii Capital Management and the current owner of Blackpool Football Club. He acquired the club out of receivership in 2019, purchasing a 96.2% share in the club, ending the Oyston family's 32-year ownership in the process. In his second full season as Blackpool's owner, the club won promotion to the second tier of English football after an absence of six years.

Career

Sadler has worked in investment banking in London, Moscow and Hong Kong for large multinationals, including HSBC, until eventually founding his own capital firm, Segantii Capital, in 2007. (''Segantii'' is the name of pre-Roman tribe from the Blackpool area.) As of 2022, Segantii had a portfolio worth £3.5 billion. He has been described as a "tough but fair character" in the business world.

Blackpool F.C.

In 2014, Sadler bought

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while sti ...

' FA Cup winners' medal from 1953 for £220,000. Five years later, he purchased Blackpool F.C. for around £10 million. Blackpool won promotion to the EFL Championship, England's second tier of professional football, in Sadler's first full season of ownership. After the promotion, Sadler explained that he alone cannot fund the investment needed by the club, that it is supported by season-ticket purchases.

Personal life

Sadler grew up on Bispham Road in

Bispham, Blackpool Bispham is a village on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, a mile and a half north of Blackpool town centre. Geography and administration The village is part of the borough of Blackpool, and generally considered a suburb of the town. To ...

."Simon Sadler: Two Years On"
– Blackpool F.C., 13 June 2021 He once had a summer job renting out deckchairs. He attended Moor Park Primary School, Warbreck School and Blackpool and the Fylde College. He completed a Business Science undergraduate degree at

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. On 1 Oct ...

. He owns a

pug The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (Fawn (colour) ...

, which he named Kenny, after Kenny Dougall, who scored both of Blackpool's goals in their 2021 EFL League One play-off Final victory over Lincoln City. Sadler is married to Gillian and has two children."Heartfelt tributes to Blackpool FC academy manager who died after cancer battle"
– LancsLive, 20 November 2020 During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the Sadlers relocated from Hong Kong to London, partly because he has become less involved with Segantii's main base in Hong Kong and partly to focus on running the football club.

References

1969 births Living people People from Bispham, Blackpool British football chairmen and investors Blackpool F.C. non-playing staff Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology {{HongKong-business-bio-stub