Valērijs Belokoņs or Valeri Belokon (born 14 February 1960) is a Latvian businessman. He is a majority shareholder and chairman of the supervisory board of ; a former co-owner of Blackpool F.C. From 12 January 2010 to 4 June 2013, he served as a Trustee of The Prince's Foundation for Building Community. For his continuous support of Latvian literature he is well known as Patron of literature.

Education

Born in Riga, when Latvia was a part of the Soviet Union, Belokoņs studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA) and the University of Latvia, Faculty of Philology.

Business career

Belokoņs is the chairperson of the supervisory board of Baltic International Bank, and his corporation Belokoņs Holdings has interests in finance, media, the Food industry and social projects in Latvia as well as football in England. In the 1980s, prior to becoming involved in business, Belokoņs worked as a correspondent in Soviet Youth newspaper in Latvia. Main business interests:

Finance and investments

Media

Social Projects

Blackpool F.C.

Through Belokoņs Holdings and VB Football Assets, Belokon bought a 20% stake in Blackpool Football Club in 2006, and is the club's president. In June 2007 he stated that he was prepared to increase his stake in Blackpool from 20% to 50% following the club's promotion to The Championship. On 8 July 2008, Belokoņs announced that he and Owen Oyston, the majority share-holder of the club, would be personally financing the construction of the new South Stand and South-west corner at Bloomfield Road, with work to start immediately. On 31 July 2009, it was announced that Belokoņs was setting up a new transfer fund for Blackpool, into which he was adding a "considerable amount" on 5 August in order to invest in new players identified by team manager Ian Holloway. On 22 May 2010, Blackpool were promoted to the top tier of English football, the Premier League, one year sooner than Belokoņs had predicted when joining the club in 2006. In September 2015, Belokoņs initiated legal action against the Oystons, alleging improper use of club funds. In August 2017, Belokoņs resigned as director of Blackpool. In November 2017 a court determined that Owen Oyston and his son had abused their majority shareholding position at the club in a manner that was detrimental both to the business and Belokons himself. They were ordered to pay £31 million to buy out Belokons' share of the business. Simon Sadler became Blackpool's new owner in June 2019. He acquired a 96.2% stake in the club.

Personal life

Belokoņs has three children.