Mike Ashley has criticised Sports Direct shareholders who refused to back the re-election of Keith Hellawell as chairman and publicly questioned the company’s corporate governance.

The founder and chief executive of Sports Direct said supportive comments about the retailer and Hellawell from the hedge fund manager Crispin Odey were “highly significant at a time when others have been less forthcoming”.

Odey, whose fund owns about 5% of Sports Direct, has said Ashley is a “natural winner” and he is “very happy with him”.

He was speaking in an interview with the Times last week after Sports Direct’s independent shareholders again voted against the re-election of the former police chief constable Hellawell.

In an unusual stock market statement on Monday, Ashley welcomed Odey’s support for the company.

“I am grateful for Crispin’s recent comments about Sports Direct and I’m glad that we will no doubt continue to have an interesting ride together,” he said. “I consider his backing to be highly significant at a time when others have been less forthcoming.

“I’m particularly pleased that we are in agreement over the fact that Keith Hellawell is the right man to help deliver further progress. We now intend to concentrate on our medium and long-term goals in order to deliver shareholder value through becoming the ‘Selfridges of sport’.”

But Odey has criticised the billionaire tycoon in the past, saying Ashley could not be “house trained” and his failure to appoint a permanent finance director was a “big concern”, and meant there was “too much power in one person’s hands”. Sports Direct has not had a permanent finance director for more than three years.

While Odey voted in favour of Hellawell remaining chairman, a string of other major shareholders and City institutions, including Standard Life, Royal London, Hermes and Aberdeen Asset Management, opposed his re-election.

Shareholders forced the vote at an extraordinary general meeting last week by rejecting Hellawell at Sports Direct’s annual meeting last September.

A total of 54% of votes from Sport Direct’s outside shareholders were against Hellawell’s re-election at the latest meeting. However, he was re-elected to the board after winning 81% of the total vote thanks to the support of Ashley, who owns 55% of the company. Ashley’s majority stake did not count towards the independent vote on Hellawell’s re-election at the first meeting.

Hellawell has said he will step down at Sports Direct’s next annual meeting if he does not win the support of the majority of independent shareholders again.

However, Ashley said last week that he wants Hellawell to reconsider his position, which inflamed relations with some investors further. Sports Direct also appeared to row back on a commitment to conduct an independent review of working conditions and corporate governance. “In view of continuing frustrations, the board will meet in the near future to reconsider all options in relation to its review of corporate governance,” it said.

The company’s reaction to the vote prompted swift criticism. Paul Lee, the head of corporate governance at Aberdeen Asset Management, said: “The board should focus on delivering the significant governance change that is expected over the next eight months.”

Hellawell criticised MPs, trades unions and the media last month for waging a campaign against Sports Direct as it reported a 57% fall in first-half profits.

It was the latest disappointing financial statement after the company’s share price halved during 2016. The group was relegated from the FTSE 100 in March.

The crisis at Sports Direct was triggered by a Guardian investigation in 2015, which revealed that workers at its Derbyshire warehouse were paid less than the minimum wage.

The scandal prompted a parliamentary inquiry last year, in which MPs likened the depot to a Victorian workhouse, reigniting long-held concerns about the level of control Ashley has at the company.