There were 55788 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 25p each and included in the accounts at 13947 according to the 2007 annual return filed at company house. Each share carried a vote
Craigavon (Robinson entity) had 24290 shares (43.5%)
Derek Higgs 8021 shares (14.3%)
M McGinnity 8021 shares (14.3%)
no other shareholder had over 1000 shares
There were over 700 shareholders in total
The directors controlled 72.1 % of the votes personally so could pretty much do as they liked.
See, I'm not averse to that model. In an ideal world, you'd maybe limit the total shares one body could have to 20%, so you had four main shareholders plus 20% for fans, and consensus was needed to drive through any policy shifts... but even then, had (in the unlikely event) Richardson not handed his shares over to Robinson, then no one of the four main shareholders held ridiculous amounts of power, and even as above, it would have been theoretically possible to remove RObinson, had the will been there.
Practically of course that doesn't work, and Robinson carried on, endorsed by the other two, but at least fans could stamp their feet, and have *some* influence, even if just the ability to wind McGinnity up at AGMs