Papa John’s founder John Schnatter has fired off another angry salvo against the company that ousted him, claiming that the CEO who succeeded him should take the blame for this year’s business slump.

Critics have blamed a persistent drop in sales on the NFL’s severing of its Papa John’s sponsorship ties after Schnatter criticized the league’s handling of the kneeling controversy last fall.

But in a late-Monday letter to franchisees, Schnatter claimed the real problem is that there’s “rot at the top,” and that Steve Ritchie, who had been his own handpicked successor, has been “out of his depth as CEO” since he took the reins in January.

“Bad financial decisions, insufficient management skills to correct them, a toxic senior management culture, and serious misconduct at the top levels of our leadership team have prompted some in the company to use me as an excuse to distract from those cold realities,” he said.

Schnatter went on to claim in the letter that Ritchie has blocked him out of the company despite recent misgivings on the Papa John’s board.

“This June, I told the board that Steve needed to go,” Schnatter wrote to franchisees. “At the time, the board agreed – and asked me to become executive chairman.”

Schnatter’s letter alleged Ritchie got wind of the planned coup through one of his direct reports, who allegedly was having an affair with an IT employee with access to Schnatter’s drafts of proposed management changes.

“Steve then decided, and communicated to others, that he needed to get rid of me to save his own job,” Schnatter wrote.

In a Tuesday statement, Papa John’s denied Schnatter’s allegations.

“At no time has the board asked John Schnatter to become executive chairman,” the company said, calling Schnatter’s letter “a self-serving attempt to distract from the damaging impact his own words and actions have had on the company and our stakeholders.”

Last December, Schnatter had blasted the NFL’s kneeling controversy for Papa John’s posting flat revenues, claiming the chain suffered collateral damage as a major sponsor of the league.

Schnatter stayed on as chairman, only to give up that title in July after being accused of using a racial slur on an internal conference call.