Tag: Football (Page 2 of 2)

Interesting times for Blackpool fans

2016-02-07 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

While the football is irrelevant this is still an ‘interesting time’ for fans of Blackpool football club. There are ups and downs but despite their appalling owner, and against a background of continuing legal actions, there is a glimmer of hope. An upcoming meeting with the club provides a way to test how fast this progress will be.

I made my choice a couple of years ago. I want change. Like many other fans I will not go back to Blackpool football club whilst the current owners, the Oyston family, remain in charge. Their actions against the fans, the club and the town are unforgiveable. The Oystons need to go and we need fan ownership to help stop events like these happening again.

A snap, by me, of Blackpool football club 30 minutes before a game. This car park and that stadium used to be full of cars and coaches carrying both home and away fans who spent money in Blackpool.

A couple of weeks back the Blackpool Supporters Trust spoke to Blackpool council about these issues. To put it mildly the response from the leader of Blackpool Council, Simon Blackburn, was gobsmacking. He said that politics and football don’t mix and that his meetings with the Oystons would stay private.

This was surprising. Even if Simon Blackburn is not concerned about the Oyston’s ongoing legal actions and threats against fans; or their failure to invest a £90m windfall earned by the football team back into the football team you would have thought that a council leader would know of the estimated £30m loss to businesses in Blackpool due to the club’s failures. We know that Simon Blackburn has met with the Oyston family. On 19 February we should find out more about these meetings and what Simon Blackburn knows.

Whilst Simon Blackburn is currently failing the town of Blackpool there are signs of progress and real leadership elsewhere.

The Blackpool Supporter’s Trust have got a number of members of parliament to choose to stand by the fans, another local councillor has called for a truce and mediation between the owner and the fans and, after three years of requests!, the football club has finally agreed to meet the fans.

(For some strange reason the football club has decided that as well as the democratically run and nearly 2000-strong Blackpool Supporters Trust and long-standing groups such as BASIL and Yorkshire Seasiders they want to invite another group, the “Fan’s Progress Group” to that meeting.

The “Fan’s Progress Group” is a strange beast. It was set up last year when the club refused to speak to other fans’ groups. The club’s staff personally selected the people who joined it and even then four quit after a single meeting with the chairman, Karl Oyston. Just like the club’s “Supporter Liaison Officer” the group has never held a public meeting to talk with fans. I understand that there are five members left and, judging by polite email exchanges with a couple of them and transcripts of their chats with Karl Oyston, they are significantly out of their depth. Now that the club has (finally!) agreed to meet with the fans’ democratically elected representatives I trust that this infamous five will choose to stop their secret meetings and join their fellow fans in the trust.)

A leech by GlebK. I would like to avoid Jason Manford’s mistake and issue an apology to leeches for the unfortunate analogy before they make a complaint.

The trust wrote last week that there is still a long way to go. This is a risk. The Oystons could try and cling on to the club like a particularly unpleasant leech sucking the blood out of its victim. If the Oystons do this the fans, the club and the town will continue to suffer. The current incarnation of Blackpool football club could even die.

But there is an argument that the Oystons may be keen to go. After all they have an impending court case alleging ‘unfair prejudice against shareholders’; the pressure from politicians will only grow now that they are starting to understand the damage that the Oystons are causing; the Football Assocation have been asked to investigate the club on ethical grounds while we can expect that the Oystons will have yet another round of bad publicity when their company accounts are published at the end of April. That will be unfortunate timing given the club’s need to persuade fans to renew season tickets rather than join the growing boycott. Perhaps the Oystons are listening to fans and are keen to exit after all.

The meeting with the trust provides an excellent opportunity to test this by presenting a rapid way out for the Oystons. I would suggest a short agenda:

Stopping all legal action against fans and refunding all money gained from legal action against fans.
Appointing an independent valuer to put a price on the club.
Timetable for the fans to raise the money and for the Oystons to get out of our club.

If the club accept this agenda and we start to see an exit timetable for the Oystons then that will be real progress for fans. Football will become relevant again and we can go back to being more interested in what happens on the pitch than the failures of the boardroom.

If they don’t accept the agenda then the fans will know that they are in for the long haul and more years of hurt. This may seem daunting but it won’t dampen my resolve.

Like many others I will continue to stand side by side with my fellow Blackpool fans.

I will stick with the Blackpool Supporters Trust.

I will continue to fight.

And one day we will win and we will get our club back.

(If you want to help Blackpool fans then you should join or donate to the Blackpool Supporters Trust and help their campaign to put football first.)

Blackpool FC: it’s time to make a choice

2016-01-26 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

Thousands of Blackpool fans are boycotting their football club, because of the owners, the Oyston family. Many will not go back whilst the Oystons own the club. We don’t care if the team do well, it’s irrelevant.

The fans have been complaining about the Oystons for a long time. As Karl Oyston said after protests in 2008:

it’s been the case ever since I first arrived here when there were people marching around with coffins and banners slung from motorway bridges on the M55

In 2014 Blackpool fans recreated the coffin march from the 90s . Photo by Chris Vaughan/CameraSport

But the protests have escalated significantly over the last 5 years. Not because of the performances on the pitch, dreadful though they have been, but because of the owners’ increasingly grotesque actions. Actions that damage the club, the fans and the town of Blackpool.

The Oystons have loaned millions of pounds from the club to other companies, taken legal action against fans, taunted them and abused them by text. A fan has been jailed for 6 months for his actions following an abandoned game. A police officer alleged that Karl Oyston was ‘beckoning and enticing’ fans.

Some people are listening

A chart the local council should be looking at. The blue line is internet searches for “Blackpool” the town. The red line is internet searches for “Blackpool FC” the club. Data from GoogleTrends

Many football professionals and journalists have joined the fans in speaking out about the appalling behaviour and dreadful management of the club by the Oystons.

Millions of people have heard those views and heard of the actions of the Oystons. Actions that have damaged the town, the club and the fans.

Many fans who are boycotting their football club are choosing not to go back to the club until the Oystons go. They chose to set up a supporter’s trust and work to turn Blackpool into a fan-owned club.

Others are yet to choose

But there are other people who have not, yet, made a choice:

Fans: There are a number of fans who choose to still go to home games. They can choose whether to continue to fund a family that takes legal action against fellow fans or whether to sacrifice some football and stand with their fellow fans.
The team’s players and manager. They have not spoken out in support of the fans and against the acts of the owners. In fact the manager has criticised the fans. They can choose whether to continue to support the Oystons or whether to speak out like their fellow football professionals.

Newcastle’s Chronicle newspaper chose to take a firm stance against their club’s owner, Mike Ashley.

The local newspaper, the Evening Gazette, occasionally runs a strong leader article but too often resorts to reporting on football games as if they were all about what happened on the pitch rather than a club that had a £90m windfall just 5 years ago. They can choose whether to accept the club’s fate or to actively campaign for the Oystons to go.
The footballing authorities banned Karl Oyston for 6 weeks when he abused a fan. Other than that they have done next to nothing despite the damage the Oystons must be causing to the reputation of English football. They can choose whether they want football to be run for the benefit of owners or for fans.
The local town council have been quiet despite the lost opportunity to regenerate one of the most deprived towns in the country and the damage being done to the town’s reputation and residents. The council leader, Simon Blackburn, told fans “we cannot take sides that is not the role of the council”. He said that his meetings with the Oystons will remain private. We will see what the council knows. They can choose to do nothing or speak up and help the fans make the Oystons go.

A full stand at Bloomfield Road in 2006. Picture by Matthew Wilkisnon, CC-BY-2.0

If the Oystons do not leave then in a few years there may be nothing left apart from an empty stadium just outside Blackpool town centre. An empty stadium where a football club used to be.

Fans from other teams, football professionals and journalists stand with Blackpool fans. They choose to speak out against the Oystons.

It is time for others to make their choice: the fans who still go, the players and manager, the local paper, the town council, the football authorities. Rather than choosing to do nothing they could choose to help stop the damage that the Oystons, and others like them are causing.

The old rollercoaster tracks at Blackpool Pleasure Beach by Dave Pearce, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

I suspect everyone who has chosen to boycott, protest, speak out and try to change things has made that choice with a mix of sadness, hurt, frustration and hope. They have chosen to do something in the hope it will bring change and make things better.

If the Oystons remain the club will surely fade and die. It will just be one more memory of Blackpool’s past. A rollercoaster ride that ended in disaster.

With the Oystons gone the fans will come back. They can rebuild the club and put football first. They can start to make the club something the town is proud of again.

It’s time for people to make their choice.

What journalists say about Blackpool FC

2016-01-10 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

Thousands of Blackpool fans are boycotting their football club, because of the owners, the Oyston family. They will not go back whilst the Oystons own the club.

Many football professionals have joined the fans in speaking out about the appalling behaviour and dreadful management of the club the Oystons.

As Blackpool loses yet another game and Karl Oyston is accused by a police officer of inciting violence from fans I thought it might useful to pull together some of what the journalists (*) who write for our national and local newspapers have said. It is useful to know what it is legally safe to say and who has heard journalists saying it.

Quotes from journalists on Blackpool FC

Jack Gaughan of the Daily Mail reported:

Murky goings-on are nothing new at Bloomfield Road. Part of the £26m to have left the club includes a deal whereby the Oystons are understood to have bought up land — owned by Blackpool FC — behind the stadium for £650,000 only to then sell it back for £6.5m after a lease for a Travelodge had been secured.

Henry Winter of the Telegraph wrote:

There are many unanswered questions over where the funds generated in the Premier League have gone. The Football League needs to be more robust with the likes of Karl Oyston. Call him to account. Go through the accounts.

At that time Karl Oyston sat on the board of the Football League. No action was taken.

Paul Wilson of the Guardian said:

The owners of the club — not the manager and the playing staff — appear to have some sort of death wish, at least as far as footballing survival is concerned.

In 2015 the Mirror asked “Professional football or Sunday league? Make up your own mind.” Picture by @derekquinncomm.

Before the end of the 2014/15 season when Blackpool were relegated the Guardian’s James Riach said

Protests instead have been targeted at Karl Oyston, the Blackpool chairman, and his father Owen, the club’s majority owner. It is they who have presided over a remarkable decline, one with no end in sight. Perhaps when the parachute payments from the Premier League dry up after this season, a clearer future will emerge.

The parachute payments have ended. The club look like they will be relegated for the second season in a row. The future seems clear.

The Independent reported on an apology to Karl Oyston:

Comedian Jason Manford has ‘apologised’ for describing Blackpool owner Karl Oyston as an odious ferret after being handed a solicitors letter from Oyston. Cheeky Manford has responded to the letter to say that he is sorry…to ferrets and ferret owners for comparing them to the Seasiders’ owner.

Last year the Telegraph decided Blackpool was the worst run club in Britain:

At the centre of all of this was chairman Karl Oyston, who was forced to make a public apology for sending abusive texts to a Blackpool supporter and whose Land Rover mocks the protestors with a OY51 OUT number plate.

After his abusive text exchange with a fan the local Blackpool paper said:

Given such disgusting and offensive comments, Mr Oyston’s weekly column in The Gazette has been scrapped with immediate effect.

Reporting on the Oyston family removing a statue of footballing legend Stan Morten before a fan’s protest march the Mirror said:

The Tangerines’ boss is Public Enemy No.1 for fans after branding supporter Stephen Smith a ‘retard’ in a text message, adding: “Enjoy the rest of your special needs day out.”

As Alyson Rudd of the Times wrote:

legal wrangles come and go at Bloomfield Road it is local people who are suffering the most from club’s decline.

You would have expected that this chain of thought would resonate with Blackpool’s councillors. The leader of Blackpool council invited Karl Oyston to his wedding.

Who hears the views of journalists

UK national newspaper print circulation in 2015. Source: Wikipedia

The Guardian, the Telegraph and the Mail have a combined print circulation of about 2.3 million people with 28.8 million online readers in November 2015.

Just this weekend 2.5 million people heard boos when the Oyston’s name was mentioned on Radio 4.

The blue line is internet searches for “Blackpool” the town. The red line is internet searches for “Blackpool FC” the club. Data from GoogleTrends

The seaside resort of Blackpool has been in decline for many years. Unfortunately Google’s search data tells the tale of an enormous drop in searches for Blackpool following the Oyston’s mismanagement of the club. Sport and entertainment could have played a significant part in regenerating the town. Instead Blackpool’s promotion was a wasted opportunity.

Internet searches for “Oystons”. Data from GoogleTrends.

The data also tells another tale. The growing number of people who are researching the Oystons.

Increasingly it is stories from the fans, the football professionals, journalists and their tales of the Oystons’ appalling behaviour that they are finding.

(*) I know Kelvin Mackenzie, ex-editor of the Sun, has also written strong words about the Oystons and Blackpool but he is no journalist. You can donate to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign online.

What football professionals think of Blackpool FC

2016-01-04 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

At the weekend the current manager of Blackpool FC, Neil McDonald, criticised the fans of Blackpool FC saying:

the support needs to be better. They shouldn’t be shouting about their issues throughout the whole game. That’s all I’m hearing.

His criticism came after Blackpool lost 1–0 against a team that was down to 10-men for the entire second half. The defeat took Blackpool back into the relegation zone from the third division. Blackpool had the second worst record in the football league in 2015.

Neil McDonald has previously said “the fans had every right to boo“ poor performances so the issues he refers to seem be different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oQS3IQ3bM

It was probably the performance of the club as a whole that the fans were protesting. Many Blackpool fans are boycotting the club until the owners, the Oyston family, have gone. Others go and protest.

Neil McDonald has never spoken up about the issues that affect the fans. Perhaps he doesn’t understand them. Lee Clark explained this phenomenon after he quit as Blackpool manager:

Nowadays players are often in a bubble, they don’t know the man in the street, they don’t understand how football affects supporters’ lives. Knowing all that is why Blackpool hurt so much.

I’ve always tried to have a relationship with supporters but I got labelled as a good friend of the Blackpool chairman, who was backing what he was doing, when I wasn’t.

Former Blackpool player and England international Trevor Sinclair, who’s clearly been keeping a closer eye on the issues at Blackpool than the manager, recently expressed his sympathy for the fans’ #napm (not a penny more) campaign.

Really sympathize with the @BlackpoolFC fans but can't do that for obvious reasons #napm https://t.co/ZPKjIBhlyB

— Trevor Sinclair (@trevor8sinclair) January 3, 2016

Perhaps Neil doesn’t sympathise with the fan’s protests and issues though. Perhaps he only cares about the views of his fellow football professionals? If so, then to help Neil out I thought it would be useful to collect a few quotes and stories from the last few years.

The Oystons take legal action against football professionals, just as they do with fans, so most quotes are similarly carefully worded.

Christian Purslow, the ex-chief executive of Liverpool said:

Blackpool are the only club in the history of the Premier League who didn’t give their manager a chance or spend anything. They just trousered the money and said “sod it we’ll just go straight back down”

The owners even tried to get out of paying players a bonus for their promotion to the Premier League. In 2010 Charlie Adam took the club to court to get the bonus that he was owed.

In May 2015 Ian Evatt said:

It is so disappointing looking into the club from the outside,” Evatt said. “There was always a chance it could self-destruct. It was a ticking bomb that has seriously now gone off. It’s so frustrating to see that our hard work has just disappeared now.

Chris Basham said:

It was heartbreaking to leave but we could see what was going to happen. You could just see everything falling apart around us.

The secret footballer, whoever that may be, said:

Oyston has damaged Blackpool in a way that the club will do well to recover from any time soon but he has made a lot of money in the process

Paul Ince had nice words to say about the chairman who sacked him as manager by text message:

It was deeply disappointing to have been notified that my contract was to be terminated via text message after a lengthy meeting with the chairman on Sunday where no indication was given that any of the coaching staff, myself included, were going to lose their jobs. Neither I nor my coaching staff received a telephone call from the chairman at any stage after this meeting.

In the same round of text messages the chairman, Karl Oyston, sacked Steve Thompson. Steve Thompson had been with the club for 10 years helping the club to get promoted twice and standing in as caretaker manager twice.

Jose Riga who was sacked as manager after just 4 difficult months was asked whether clubs would loan players to Blackpool:

Could he imagine a top Premier League club loaning players to Blackpool in their current state? “I don’t think it is difficult to find the answer,” he says. “Of course they are going to think twice.”

Neil McDonald has recently discovered this for himself:

Being truthful it’s been difficult to recruit.

I’ve had one Premier League club who wouldn’t loan us a player because of the problems we have here.

Neil clearly didn’t do his research before he joined Blackpool but rather than the fans or a fellow football professional perhaps Neil McDonald or anyone else thinking of joining the club should have been listening to someone who has actually worked at Blackpool all along.

Bart de Roover resigned as assistant manager in 2014 claiming that he had worked unpaid and without a contract for two months. The chairman of Blackpool football club Karl Oyston responded to Bart’s complaints by saying:

He knew exactly what he was coming to when he came and if he didn’t, more fool him

For once I agree with Karl Oyston.

More fool Neil McDonald and more fool anyone else who attends a match or takes a job at Blackpool whilst the Oystons remain in charge.

If they had done their research and thought about the issues before joining the club perhaps they would have found themselves putting football first and joining the Blackpool Supporters Trust instead.

The FA, the Football League, Lancashire Police and Blackpool FC have failed Huddersfield fans

2015-12-31 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

In 2015 Blackpool FC were relegated from English football’s second division after a season of humiliation on the pitch and a series of disgraceful actions by the owners, the Oyston family. Newspapers across the world reported on the season and the Oyston family’s actions.

Blackpool currently sit at 18th place in the third division. Fans, led by the Blackpool Supporters Trust, are focussed on removing the owners and turning Blackpool into a fan-owned club.

The last home game of the 2015 season was against Huddersfield Town. It was abandoned following a pitch invasion by 100–200 Blackpool fans.

As a result of the invasion Blackpool were fined £50,000 and warned by the Football Association (FA) and given a suspended three-point deduction by the Football League (FL). Blackpool were instructed to pay for the costs of the FA and FL’s investigations into how and why the pitch invasion took place and the match abandoned.

Huddersfield fans received no compensation.

It is clear from reading the various judgements and news articles that both Lancashire Police and Blackpool FC knew that a pitch invasion was planned and that they took insufficient action to prevent it happening.

There is no evidence of a warning being given to Huddersfield fans.

Blackpool FC, Lancashire Police and the footballing authorities have failed Hudderfield fans. Train travel, ticket and food will have cost each fan about £100. That’s a lot of money to see a full football match let alone half a game.

The football authorities should ensure that Huddersfield fans are compensated for their travel and their tickets.

The football authorities need to stand up for fans.

The plan for a pitch invasion was known in advance

The FL’s Football Disciplinary Commission report says:

Both the Club and the police were aware that there were plans by some Blackpool supporters to invade the pitch during the match, shortly after half time.

The FA’s report says:

in the letter dated 5 May 2015 to the FA Mr Pinder [the Ground Safety Officer of Blackpool FC] stated that all the intelligence indicated that disgruntled Blackpool fans would stage some form of protest before, during and after the match, which potentially could include pitch incursions as a way of protesting against the Chairman of the Club. The letter also confirmed that prior to kick-off the Referee was informed of the potential forms of protest

The same report goes on to say:

in an email from a Huddersfield fan, who attended the match with his young son, dated 5 May 2015 he set out the events leading up to and occurring during the pitch incursion. In particular he stated “We got talking to stewards who told us the pitch would be invaded on 48 mins etc etc which was the first we had heard of it.”

The report found:

there were serious inadequacies in the planning that led up to the match on 2 May 2015. There was strong intelligence available that there would be a pitch incursion and that it would be in the early part of the second half of the match. It was admitted by Mr Pinder that the threat of incursion was foreseeable from the Armfield Stand or the West Stand because that is where most of the Blackpool fans were. In those circumstances the pitch incursion was foreseen and the approximate location of the incursion was foreseeable

The FA’s report also makes it clear that the protest was directed at the Oystons:

The pitch incursion involved between 100 to 200 people taking part in a protest specifically directed at the Chairman of the Club, Karl Oyston.

Three Blackpool fans recently admitted threatening behaviour during the protests. A news article reporting their admission and punishment again made it clear that both Blackpool FC and the police knew that a pitch invasion was planned.

The game started peacefully but police intelligence had warned that smoke bombs would be used to set off fire alarms to signify a pitch invasion.

The referee Mick Russell was made aware of the threat and when the invasion happened, took off the players and later abandoned the match.

Despite knowing of the planned invasion neither the club nor the police issued warnings or took sufficient action to stop the pitch invasion.

It’s time for the footballing authorities to stand up for fans

The Huddersfield Town Supporters Association and a number of individual supporters have complained to the Independent Football Ombudsman (IFO) about the lack of compensation.

The IFO recently ruled on their complaint and said:

the supporters had a sound case and the IFO is surprised that a compensation order was not made by the Commission

So am I.

Huddersfield fans are now considering whether to take Blackpool to the small claims court.

I hope they win.

I’m not sure whether it was possible for Blackpool FC to stop the pitch invasion. The relationship between the Oyston family and many Blackpool fans has degraded to the point where it’s irreperable. This was inevitable if you consider their legal actions against fans, the team’s performance on the pitch and the family’s many taunts and provocations. This does not excuse the pitch invasion or the threatening behaviour by some fans but it helps us understand it and predict that an invasion would occur. In fact the very next game suffered a pitch invasion too.

It is clear that Blackpool FC knew the pitch invasion against Huddersfield was going to happen. It is clear that they took insufficient action to stop it, failed to warn Huddersfield fans and are failing to compensate them now.

If the footballing authorities had been keeping an eye on the situation at Blackpool I suspect they would have known a pitch invasion was going to happen too.

In 2016 the footballing authorities need to start helping fans. They should make sure that Huddersfield fans receive compensation.

Of course they should also help Blackpool fans get rid of their owners. But that’s a different tale…..

Make a New Year resolution: Boycott Blackpool FC to help save it

2015-12-30 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

Blackpool Football Club are near the bottom of the third division and failing fast.

They are not just failing on the pitch and falling down the league, they are failing their fans, the town and the wider footballing community. The behaviour of the club’s owners, the Oyston family, is gobsmacking.

Karl Oyston, the chairman of Blackpool FC, posing by a poster protesting against the way that the Oyston family run the club.

Football is meant to be something to enjoy, that encourages more people to take up sport and that brings communities together. It’s meant to be fun.

Instead Blackpool fans are boycotting the club and wondering who will be next to face legal action.

You can help save Blackpool FC. In the process you can help make English football a better sport. A sport that puts football, fans and communities first

The behaviour of the Oyston family

I have to be careful with what I write about the Oyston family. They take legal action against fans and media.

As well as legal actions they have taunted fans demonstrating against the club; loaned millions from the club to other Oyston-owned companies despite the team’s dreadful performances on the pitch; and texted abuse to a fan. A quick search will show you many more stories from across the world.

The owner’s latest trick is to attempt to undermine the democratically run Blackpool Supporter’s Trust by setting up their own group. The Fan’s Progress Group have failed to hold a single public meeting, meet with the club behind closed doors, and has just six members. In 2010 over thirty thousand Blackpool fans went to Wembley.

A picture of the club shop. Thousands of Blackpool fans no longer shop there or go in the ground. They will not spend a penny more at the club.

If Blackpool football club is to be saved then this behaviour has to stop. The club and the fans need to be able to trust each other.

The owners need to stop taking legal action against fans and the club, like other parts of football, must provide greater transparency. But given the depth of feeling caused by the Oyston family’s actions against fans there is one vital first step.

There needs to be a change of ownership. The Oyston family need to go.

Protests and boycotts

Blackpool fans march along a wet and windy seafront in November 2015 in a protest organised by the Tangerine Knights.

A dwindling number of Blackpool fans still go to games.

Some of those fans will have good reasons, perhaps it is a rare opportunity to spend time with very old or very young relatives. Others simply don’t realise what the owners have been doing.

But the majority of Blackpool fans protest. They don’t accept the ownership by the Oyston family. They get to work to change it.

At every match fans stand outside the stadium and hand out leaflets.

Many more fans protest by staying away entirely. It hurts too much and there are more fun things to do on a Saturday. Boycotting is a valid form of protest. By withdrawing support and not spending money fans are making a choice and wielding their economic power. Boycotts and protests help make change happen.

Other fans in the football community have supported the protests and boycott.

Some of the local MPs, Gordon Marsden, Mark Menzies and Paul Maynard are trying to get the issue debated in Parliament. Gordon is supporting legislation bought forward by Clive Efford that will puts fan representatives on the boards of football clubs and give fans the right to buy shares under certain conditions.

But the politicians on Blackpool town council and the football authorities are noticable by their absence on the protests and relative silence on the issues. They are letting the community down. We need pressure on the Oyston family to make them sell the club.

It is the fans who are making change happen. They know that it will not be easy but they will never give up.

Supporter owned clubs

The Blackpool Supporter’s Trust is run democratically. 979 people voted in their recent elections. They are staffed by volunteers and have put in an incredible amount of effort over the last few years. Recently they bid to buy the club.

The bid would turn Blackpool into a supporter owned club.

Supporter ownership leads to clubs where decisions aren’t made by individual owners but are instead made democratically and inclusively with the community. Clubs that are run by fans for fans. Clubs that put football first.

Supporters Direct helps fans set up trusts to gain influence in the running and ownership of their clubs. The movement is supported by politicians from all parties.

Turning Blackpool into a supporter owned club will not be easy or quick. It could take years. It might be a different bid to buy the club that is successful, but it needs to be a bid that includes the fans. It might even need the fans to start a new club as Wimbledon fans did after their club was moved 56 miles away.

The Oyston family have refused to negotiate the initial bid.

The trust and the fans need your support to help make change happen. Protests, boycotts and spreading the message are a way to help.

In times of crisis and need, regardless of who we support, fans need to stand together. The more successful the supporter owned movement becomes the better it will be for all sports fans.

You can help save Blackpool FC and, by bringing another example of supporter ownership into English football, you can help make football a better sport. One that’s fun. One that’s run by fans for fans.

Ways to help

Share the message of the Blackpool Supporters Trust across social media with the tags #footballfirst, #oystonout or #SaveBlackpoolFC
If you are a fan then join the Blackpool Supporter’s Trust. If you want to buy memorabilia then buy from fans.

3. Join the boycott of Blackpool football club. If you are a fan of a club playing at Blackpool then enjoy a trip to the seaside, but don’t buy a ticket. Join the Blackpool fans protesting outside.

4. If you live in Blackpool write a polite email to the local councillors asking them to help save Blackpool FC.

5. If you don’t live in Blackpool then write to your MP asking them to help supporter ownership and to help save Blackpool FC.

Make a New Year resolution: Help save Blackpool FC

2015 was another turbulent year for Blackpool FC. This year make a resolution to boycott it.

You will help sports fans, help the Blackpool Supporters Trust and help save Blackpool FC.

[This post was updated on 2 January to add information about the local MPs work and Clive Efford’s bill]

[This post was updated on 4 January to clarify a point about the Fan’s Progress Group]

Why I tweet about Blackpool FC

2015-10-31 / peterkwells / 0 Comments

Last week someone asked me “Why do you tweet about Blackpool FC so much?”. I gave them my usual answer.

I tweet about Blackpool to tell the story of what happened after the 2010/11 season in the top division and how it hurt me, my family and the place I call home. I also tweet to give publicity to the facts and to help Blackpool fans change the ownership of their club. I believe that no football fan should go to or spend money with Blackpool football club for any reason. An ethical boycott can help make change happen.

For many people who don’t follow football closely that one season in the top division may be where the story ended. People might have thought that the natural order of things was back in place as Blackpool dropped down the divisions. They’d be wrong. There’s another story.

Image by Jon Candy licensed CC BY-SA-2.0

The Oyston family have controlled a majority ownership in Blackpool football club since 1987. There have been many incidents during the time they have owned the club. I am going to focus on incidents after that promotion.

I have to be very careful with what I write and make sure I link to clear sources. The Oystons have taken legal action against fans. At least one fan has successfully threatened legal action in return. A businessman, Valeri Belokon, who owns 25% of the club is taking legal action. I understand that there are multiple ongoing legal actions between the Oystons and fans of Blackpool football club. We all have to be very careful with what we write.

Being in the top division in the UK can be financially lucrative due to money from television deals. Even if the team is relegated they will receive so-called ‘parachute payments’ over the next few years. In the season Blackpool were promoted the extra income the club would receive even if they were immediately relegated was estimated to be £90m. I thought about what that money would mean to Blackpool. What the extra visitors and investment would do to help improve the club and the town. It was an astonishing opportunity.

In the year that Blackpool got promoted the club paid an £11m salary to Owen Oyston. The club got relegated.

In that year the club also paid money to buy land off the owners and loaned money to other companies controlled by the Oystons. The club’s financial accounts show that by 2013/2014 the club had outstanding loans of £27.7m to these other companies.

In July 2014 the club had to cancel a pre-season tour as it only had 8 players. The team struggled. The season ended with relegation to the third division and a game that was abandoned following a pitch invasion.

During that season the club’s chairman, Karl Oyston, was discovered to have exchanged abusive text messages with a fan. Reading the text messages is a good way to get the measure of the man. During that season Karl Oyston sat on the board of one of English football’s governing bodies, the Football League.

In the last few years over 1500 Blackpool fans have joined the Blackpool Supporters Trust. The Oyston family took legal action against the chairman of the trust. The trust is run democratically and has tried to buy the club. If that bid had been successful then Blackpool would have joined a growing movement of fan-owned clubs. Clubs that put football first and are connected to their community.

The Blackpool Supporters Trust bid to buy the club was structured in a way that would have written off the loans from the football club to other companies owned by the Oyston family. It would have allowed those companies to keep the money that had been generated by the football club. The Oyston family have refused to negotiate. The Blackpool Supporters Trust have answered all the questions that had been asked of them.

This isn’t about a sense of entitlement and a belief that money can buy success. During most of the years that I’ve supported Blackpool they weren’t the most successful of clubs.

Blackpool won a couple of football league trophies and had some great and baffling moments. But apart from a brief trip to the bottom division Blackpool were mostly bumbling along in the third until strange things started to happen. First promotion to the second division where relegation was narrowly avoided for a couple of years before a relatively small amout of external investment came into the club from Valeri Belokon. Money that helped buy Charlie Adam. Then a miracle occurred: in 2010 Blackpool beat Cardiff at Wembley and got promoted to the top division.

Image of 2010 playoff final by Gordon Segar and licensed CC BY-NC-ND-2.0. The empty seats are corporate ones. The fans celebrating are Blackpool fans wearing the brightest tangerine.

Brett Ormerod scored that day. He went on to score against Spurs in the top division. Brett scored for Blackpool in all four football league divisions. Not surprisingly he’s my favourite player.

Most of my family were with me at Wembley. As we walked back to my flat in South London draped in tangerine and carrying flags we were applauded by the drinkers outside the local pubs. I expect there were similar scenes up and down the country as over 30,000 Blackpool fans made their way home.

I was born and raised just outside Blackpool. My family still live there. I’ve been to many games over the years. I’ve also followed many more games by watching text updates on the internet and shouting along from afar. Over the last 20 years I’ve spent chunks of time working abroad and living a long way away. Those updates and that football club (ok, and my family…) were part of my link to home. Sport can be part of what connects you to your home. It is for me.

Blackpool is not a glamorous team but neither is it a glamorous town. I enjoyed living and growing up there but for many people it has a reputation as a place you visit for the Pleasure Beach, stag nights, hen parties and a donkey ride on the beach. Blackpool has pockets of extreme poverty. But I saw something both on that day at Wembley and in the couple of years that followed.

I saw more and more people being proud of coming from Blackpool and I saw more people understanding what I meant when I said “I’m from Blackpool”.

I no longer had to qualify it with “the seaside town in Lancashire, up the coast from Liverpool or left and up from Manchester”. People would nod and go “oh, isn’t that the place with the football team?”. “Yeah”, I’d say, “we’re the small town that beat world-famous football club Liverpool home and away :)”. The town and population of Blackpool, one of the most deprived towns in the UK, was more widely known and was walking tall. That was good for the place and the people

Now the team are a laughing stock whilst Jeremy Clarkson claims that people in Blackpool’s bedsits are ‘enthusiastic users of heroin and Stella Artois’. Clarkson’s wrong by the way, there’s far cheaper ways to get drunk than Stella.

It hurts to not go to games. To see the damage and pain (both financial and emotional) the last few years have caused to the club and to the thousands of people in Blackpool who want to see change at the club. They each have their own story. Some will be similar to mine. Some will be wildly different.

The club is part of my link to my community and the place I come from. I tried going to see a football team near where I currently live but it was a bit too posh for my tastes (there was no Bovril or pies!) and I also spent most of the match checking the Blackpool score. To be honest I was checking the score in the hope that Blackpool would lose and a couple more fans would stop going.

With new ownership we can get some hope back. Maybe build a training ground that joins the club with the community and helps the town grow. Maybe a team that we can get behind and go on another crazy trip through the football divisions. I don’t mind if that trip is up the football league or down but I do want that trip to be with people that I believe in, trust and that I want to shout and sing along with. I want that trip to be with a football club that I can be proud of. One that makes me walk tall rather than feel ashamed. My tangerine scarves, shirt and the flag we carried home from Wembley are waiting for that moment.

A tangerine scarf and flag. Programmes, other scarves, tops, hat and other Blackpool *paraphernalia* are out of shot.

Neither I nor my family go to Blackpool games any more. We will not put any more of our money, time and goodwill into the club whilst it is owned by the Oystons.

Two years ago we decided that was the best way we could help change the owners of the club. The support has to dwindle. The revenues have to shrink and keep on shrinking. There has to be no financial reason for the Oyston family to want to own the club. That will encourage them to leave. That’s the right outcome.

Thousands of people have made the same decision: “Not A Penny More” (#NAPM).

I sometimes give a really short answer when asked why I tweet about Blackpool FC: because it hurts and I want that hurt to go away.

You can help me and thousands of Blackpool fans by sharing the facts and spreading the message of an ethical boycott that can make change happen.