A fresh start in the New Year: BST Gazette column

[BFCSupportersTrust]

Every football fan knows that supporting a club is not a particularly rational thing to do, that emotions and passion have got a great deal to do with the connection between supporter and club, the commitment that one feels for the other – fanatic is at the root of the word fan, after all.

It is natural for fans’ passions to run high when the team is doing particularly well or particularly badly. Euphoria and despond are quite common emotions on the terraces and around the town in response to fortunes on the field. Owen Oyston professes to understand that. His son probably does not.

Such a simple model for supporting your football club ceased to be applicable at Blackpool FC in the wake of our season in the Premier League. The paradigm changed. What happens on the field is still important (even in division four), but for the last three years what has been happening off the field at the football club has dominated people’s thinking and reactions - and that has led to a decision by many supporters to show their passion and commitment to the club they love by actively staying away.

To an outsider, that might seem bizarre. To thousands of Seasiders it makes perfect and principled though rather painful sense. In this respect, Blackpool appears to be unique among football clubs at the moment. For so many fans to boycott Bloomfield Road for so long in protest against the actions of the owners is unprecedented. This season’s nearly empty stadium has been the defining protest of 2016 and has grabbed its share of headlines, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that thousands of supporters have been boycotting for two, three, four years already and will continue to do so until the Oystons go.

Owen appears not to understand the paradigm change. He seems steeped in his own mythomania and doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the Oystons’ manner of running of the club since reaching the Premier League is what has lost them whatever goodwill existed towards them from the fan base and from their Latvian co-owner as well. Karl probably understands exactly how things stand and is possibly much more comfortable with the level of financial demands being made on the company now that Blackpool is safely back in the lower leagues again.

The Oystons may have hoped and expected that large numbers of fans would come back once the team found its winning feet in this division. Patently that hasn’t happened. They shouldn’t underestimate the depth of antipathy towards their custodianship. Many supporters are convinced that club and community are suffering as a direct consequence of the owners’ handling of affairs and as fans they have no faith in Karl or Owen to act in the best interests of anyone but the Oystons – an unacceptable scenario in which Blackpool FC is merely a hostage to fortune.

Certainly very few fans can envisage a positive and progressive future for the Seasiders with the Oystons still at the helm, hence the insistence by Blackpool Supporters’ Trust that it is in the best long-term interests of Blackpool FC for there to be a change of ownership. Various attempts were made by the Trust in 2016 to represent the considered views of the membership to the owners but nothing positive has come of such initiatives and it doesn’t look as though Owen and/or Karl are interested in constructive attempts to remedy the situation, so the impasse rolls into the new year, when results in the civil courts may prove as influential as results on the football field. In one way and another, 2017 could be a pivotal year.

With both Owen Oyston and Valeri Belokon (in the latter’s recent message to supporters) confirming their passion for football and their love of Blackpool FC, it has to be hoped that, given they own practically 100% of Blackpool Football Club between them, they can settle on a way forward that does the right thing for the club, the supporters and the town: that completely restructures the ownership, replaces the Chairman, restores football as a priority, plans for advancement up the divisions with an appropriate level of investment to make it a reality and recognises the stake that supporters have in the club. Those are the circumstances under which Blackpool’s large and passionate fan base will come back through the turnstiles again.

In the meantime, for everyone who feels that their connection with Blackpool FC is on hold, Blackpool Supporters’ Trust has this message. Don’t lose your passion for the club. Channel the emotion and keep faith in the collective power of supporters to help change the situation at Blackpool FC for the better. The Trust exists to safeguard a brighter future for Blackpool FC on behalf of all fans. However, there is also strength in numbers, so add your support in the most tangible way by signing up to the Trust if you haven’t already become a member. You can find out all about BST and its aims online at www.blackpoolsupporterstrust.com. Make it a New Year resolution.

A Happy New Year to Seasiders everywhere.

 

[whitey1942]

Another brilliant and well articulated piece from BST. The article says it all and if there is anybody out there, and we all know of at least one, other than the odious family, who can find fault with those sentiments then let's be hearing from you.
The 'one' I have referred to is of course our resident failed town councillor.

 

[SeasideEssexXile]

Grimsby view on us:

A rough guide to... Blackpool
Cod Almighty | Article
by Sam Metcalf
30 December 2016


Blackpool's football isn't pretty under Gary Bowyer, but it's still more attractive than their owners

How are you?
When I were a lad, Town spent most of the time at least one division higher than Blackpool. Back in the mid-1980s it was hard to believe that a few decades earlier they were one of the powerhouses of English football. At that point they were playing to crowds of less than 3,000. A dramatic rise and fall from the Premier League has proved, once again, that football is cyclical, and, one day, Town will be European champions.
What have you been up to?
Using Marx's method of dialectical materialism means that if you harbour a gripe against John Fenty you can park it now and thank everything around you that our club isn't owned by the Oyston family.
The Oystons built their wealth on the back of an estate agency empire – so that tells you pretty much all you need to know. Of course, Blackpool have seen good times under chairman Karl Oyston, being promoted to the top flight in 2010. But the fall was as swift as the rise and the last we heard Oyston was embroiled in a series of libel cases against fans. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Makes snapping a flag seem trivial, eh?
The Tangerines were relegated from the third division last year after a 5-1 walloping at Peterborough. Their manager is Gary Bowyer, who seems to have a kink for working for megalomaniac club owners after suffering at the hands of the Venkys at Blackburn.
What kind of season did you have?
Last season's relegation to the fourth division was made worse by nearby rivals Fleetwood surviving after a last-day win at already relegated Crewe. At least Blackpool made it to the last day – something that didn't look altogether certain after a disastrous February and March when the team took only nine points from ten matches. A soul-sapping last five games of the season saw just one point gained, and included mullerings away at Rochdale, at home to Wigan and the aforementioned hammering at London Road.
How are you feeling?
Things are looking a little better for Blackpool now. Bowyer, while not known for his free-flowing football, gets his team to 'keep us shape' – and that's clearly what's needed after a helter-skelter ride down the leagues with an 'eccentric' chairman mithering away at confidence.
Blackpool are one point outside the play-off spots and are scoring pretty regularly. As with a host of teams in the fourth division, consistency is lacking, but Blackpool seem to still have the financial clout to go out and buy players in January – a move which should, with a fair wind, see them in the top seven come May.
The Tangerines are also into the third round of the FA Cup and will play Barnsley on 7 January.
Where are you from?
Blackpool – the Cleethorpes of the north-west coast. A place as much known these days for its stag and hen parties as it is is the Pleasure Beach, the Tower and the illuminations. A place where you can get a bag of chips at any time of the day or night, and still have change for a bag of chips on the way home.
Around 142,000 people live in Blackpool full time, with hundreds of thousands more joining them every summer for a chance to get completely hammered in a chain pub. What a life.
The Tangerines play at the much-renovated Bloomfield Road, which has changed considerably since I last journeyed there some 25 years ago. Then, you could see waste swathes of empty terrace. Now you can see vast swathes of empty orange seats. Where have all the plastic Prem fans gone? Not all of them care about the Oystons, surely?
Of course one player in Blackpool's history stands out head and shoulders above all others. This man played to a ripe old age – something many of today's stars wouldn't dream of doing. He was celebrated at Wembley by driving his team towards an unlikely victory and is therefore forever immortalised in footballing folklore. That's right – in 1992, Alan Buckley bought Paul Groves from Blackpool and the rest is history.
You must be fed up with the Oystons
I touched on it earlier, but let's just run through a list of alleged or proven offences by Blackpool's owners:
Owen Oyston (Karl's father) was jailed for six years in 1996 for rape and indecent assault
After using financial backer Valeri Belokon's money to get promoted to the Premier League, the Oystons froze him out
Karl Oyston once labelled Blackpool fan a "massive retard" and an "intellectual cripple" in a text message exchange, which led to the FA banning him from all footballing activities for six weeks and a £40,000 fine
In 2012, Oyston was fined a further £40,000 for illegally dumping waste from the building of a new stand at Bloomfield Road at Whyndyke Farm
In January 2015, after rejecting a £200-a-week professional contracts, youth players Mark Waddington and Dom Telford were turned away from training by Oyston and told to play for the youth team until they accepted his offer
The list goes on and on. They make Honest John seem like an angel. But hang on in there, Blackpool fans – without you there is no club, and without the club the Oystons don't have their vanity project. You'll win eventually.