BFCSupportersTrust
Vital Youth Team
The news that Gary Bowyer resigned as manager of Blackpool FC at the beginning of the season after a meeting with Owen Oyston yesterday has caused much anger and dismay. The last few turbulent years at our club have taken their toll and the departure of a man who has managed to hold things together on the pitch while events were escalating off it has brought the precarious position of Blackpool FC back into sharp focus.
As fans, we are constantly side-lined and left to look on while others decide the fate of a community asset which we believe belongs to us. Unfortunately, the law makes no allowance for sentiment or community spirit and Blackpool FC is a business to be controlled, used or abused like any other. The football authorities appear either disinclined to act or are impotent to do so while an historic club and community asset is plundered. That in itself is unacceptable.
It is also hugely disappointing and quite unacceptable that we are still waiting for an end to this sordid drama nine months after a High Court judge ruled that Owen Oyston had illegitimately stripped assets from the club and that his business partner had been unfairly prejudiced to the tune of £31.27 million. Oyston is facing financial ruin. The club he purports to love is in tatters and and entire community is desperate to see the back of him and his family. Quite why he is insisting on clinging to the wreckage of a once proud football club is impossible to imagine.
Blackpool Supporters’ Trust had already arranged for a pre-match protest this Saturday, 11th August, outside the main entrance at the West Stand. This is now a rallying call to the whole community. Now, more than ever, it is vital that all Blackpool fans, ordinary citizens of Blackpool and the Fylde, town councillors, business and community leaders, stand together publicly and as one on Saturday afternoon to send the message to Owen Oyston that we do not want him or his family to have anything to do with our football club. We cannot allow one individual to continue to wreak havoc on an entire town.
Saturday’s protest is for boycotters and attendees alike. BST calls upon all fans, whether they are members of BST, BSA, MSG, any other supporters’ group or none at all, to come and stand in solidarity from 2pm onwards – and if you are going in to the game, to delay your entry until after kick-off (e.g. 3.05) just to make it absolutely clear in a symbolic way that although you are entering the ground to support the team, you have no sympathy with the Oyston regime or the way the Oystons’ custodianship of our club continues to decimate it.
The same invitation goes out to townspeople who are not football fans but have been adversely affected by the demise of the club in recent years. It also goes out to the leaders, politicians and business people of our town who are concerned at the adverse publicity and toxic effect that the Oyston ownership of our football club has had on the whole of Blackpool. The burden of Oyston’s ownership is too great for football fans to carry alone - we ask all of you to share it with us, to show that Blackpool stands united.
We request that all who join the protest do so in a spirit of camaraderie and solidarity, that personal differences are put to one side to enable us to focus on what is best for our football club and that each individual behaves with passion, dignity and respect. Let Saturday 11th August be the day that a community - OUR community - stands together and shows the Oystons, the town, the football authorities and the wider sporting world that we have had enough.
#We Are Blackpool FC
As fans, we are constantly side-lined and left to look on while others decide the fate of a community asset which we believe belongs to us. Unfortunately, the law makes no allowance for sentiment or community spirit and Blackpool FC is a business to be controlled, used or abused like any other. The football authorities appear either disinclined to act or are impotent to do so while an historic club and community asset is plundered. That in itself is unacceptable.
It is also hugely disappointing and quite unacceptable that we are still waiting for an end to this sordid drama nine months after a High Court judge ruled that Owen Oyston had illegitimately stripped assets from the club and that his business partner had been unfairly prejudiced to the tune of £31.27 million. Oyston is facing financial ruin. The club he purports to love is in tatters and and entire community is desperate to see the back of him and his family. Quite why he is insisting on clinging to the wreckage of a once proud football club is impossible to imagine.
Blackpool Supporters’ Trust had already arranged for a pre-match protest this Saturday, 11th August, outside the main entrance at the West Stand. This is now a rallying call to the whole community. Now, more than ever, it is vital that all Blackpool fans, ordinary citizens of Blackpool and the Fylde, town councillors, business and community leaders, stand together publicly and as one on Saturday afternoon to send the message to Owen Oyston that we do not want him or his family to have anything to do with our football club. We cannot allow one individual to continue to wreak havoc on an entire town.
Saturday’s protest is for boycotters and attendees alike. BST calls upon all fans, whether they are members of BST, BSA, MSG, any other supporters’ group or none at all, to come and stand in solidarity from 2pm onwards – and if you are going in to the game, to delay your entry until after kick-off (e.g. 3.05) just to make it absolutely clear in a symbolic way that although you are entering the ground to support the team, you have no sympathy with the Oyston regime or the way the Oystons’ custodianship of our club continues to decimate it.
The same invitation goes out to townspeople who are not football fans but have been adversely affected by the demise of the club in recent years. It also goes out to the leaders, politicians and business people of our town who are concerned at the adverse publicity and toxic effect that the Oyston ownership of our football club has had on the whole of Blackpool. The burden of Oyston’s ownership is too great for football fans to carry alone - we ask all of you to share it with us, to show that Blackpool stands united.
We request that all who join the protest do so in a spirit of camaraderie and solidarity, that personal differences are put to one side to enable us to focus on what is best for our football club and that each individual behaves with passion, dignity and respect. Let Saturday 11th August be the day that a community - OUR community - stands together and shows the Oystons, the town, the football authorities and the wider sporting world that we have had enough.
#We Are Blackpool FC
