Karl Oyston Step Down – HELP the Petition

[daib0]

I’m happy to forward this to you all – I believe fans should help each other for the benefit of all. I’m a Reading fan, as many of you know, but I write regularly on many different forums, and feel that I know the ins-and-outs of many. I also help to organize inter-forum games and competitions.

Right now the overwhelming majority of Blackpool fans need YOU to sign their big petition - please help! The following should help to explain everything. If you still feel you need more info as good as any: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Oyston



from Blackpool Supporters Trust


Hi All,

Any assistance that you can give in supporting our petition would be greatly appreciated. You may already have heard, but our club chairman Karl Oyston has been in the press this week for insulting a fan by text. The press has focused on the use of language which could be considered offensive including use of the term "Retard" and the comment "Enjoy your special needs day out", which have been widely condemned, due to the offence it may cause to the disabled, their families and indeed decent society. Football is supposed to be inclusive and clearly the use of such language cannot be tolerated.

However Oyston has not only insulted those with disabilities, he also appears to believe that normal everyday working people are also somehow beneath him and in doing so has widely insulted football fans across the country.

Here is one example of a text sent to a Blackpool fan by Karl Oyston...

"So let me get this straight, you think that despite knowing and being friendly with other chairman in the FL and PL, venture capitalists, bankers, entrepeneurs, very successful businessmen, government ministers, MP's and a whole host of notable worthies, that I should single out a fat flaccid painter and decorator/consultant whose crowning achievment is taking his poor family on holiday to Orlando for three torturous weeks a year? really? I suggest you slip discreetly back into whatever foul pond you emerged from. Crack on as I am enjoying myself. you are on toast and are too simple to realise it. In fact you have cheered me up no end and made me realise I am right to completely ignore the influential fans so cheers." Karl Oyston.

Karl Oyston is, as you may be aware, also on the Football League Board and therefore has an influential role in the decisions that may affect your football club. We firmly believe there is no place in football for anyone with such a dismissive attitude towards us, the fans.
Blackpool Fans also believe that Oyston should be removed from his position on the Football League board.


...................................................................................................................................................................................


Club President Valeri Belokon has called upon all Blackpool fans to support a petition for Club Chairman Karl Oyston to step down from his position with immediate effect.

Blackpool Supporters Trust would ask that our members , Blackpool fans and indeed all in the football community support Mr Belokons request and sign the attached petition that requests that Mr Karl Oyston step down from any position of influence in Blackpool FC immediately. This petition will be submitted to the FA and Football League as well as to Blackpool Football Club owner Mr Owen Oyston.

As many fans will be aware, Karl Oyston has recently been in the national and local media, having engaged in a series of abusive text exchanges with Blackpool supporters, which has further sullied the good name of Blackpool FC through association.

The attitude displayed by Mr Oyston, not only in regard to the unacceptable references to disabilities and ' special needs ' but in his general attitude towards hard working Blackpool fans in general makes him in our view unsuitable to hold a position of influence within our famous community football club.

For some time the relationship between Club and its fans has been strained and it is our firm belief that many of these issues are a direct result of Karl Oyston and his confrontational approach to the fan base. This latest outburst from Mr Oyston is simply a very public demonstration of an attitude that as has no place on football and decent society and which in addition has had a negative impact on relations between Karl Oyston and numerous managers , board members , members of the Press , players , fans and of course, Mr Belokon himself. When one individual manages to sour relations with so many other people, then the source of the problem becomes patently obvious. Karl Oyston seems incapable of managing everyday relationships without conflict and that cannot be good for Blackpool Football Club.

The time has come for Blackpool Football Club to move on into a new era of cooperation between Club and its fans and the wider community and for us to build upon the success that Valeri Belokon's substantial investment had brought about. Blackpool Supporters Trust call upon Mr Owen Oyston to remove Karl Oyston from any position of influence with immediate effect and re-establish a working relationship with Valeri Belokon, with a view to making positive progress, placing football first, investing properly for the success of the team and to start treating the fans and community of Blackpool with the respect that they deserve from the ambassador of our historic club.

Please sign the online petition detailing your full name & email address, together with any comments that you feel are relevant.


Sign Petition HERE





Thanks!!!

[technical]

Hmm. All horrid things to say but do we get to see what the "fan" said first?

[gillsjan]

Good question technical I think about our own club here and what we would or should do in these circumstances. Th fan must have said something to get a response.

[Deleted]

Irrespective of what was the cause, the reaction has no place in football/sport/public life.It is despicable of a man of Karl Oyston's standing, or anyone else for that matter to mock the afflicted and virtually consider people to be of amoebic existence.

[gillsjan]

Don't disagree but always like to see full story before signing anything

[technical]

I think that's the crux of it though dc83. It wasn't public, it was a private text response to a text sent to a private number. I suspect you're right but we've only been allowed to see one side of this private exchange.

[muppet]

Some shameful quotes, but must agree with the above and I would like to see what abuse came his way first, everybody has a breaking point. Unfortunately for Blackpool they are bottom of the pile at present after hitting those heights a season or so back and tbh some supporters can't face the fact that they aren't of the substance required sometimes and start abusing all and sundry (usually chairman and managers) as we are fully aware. If what was said by the supporter is trivial then I would sign as a man running a club should know better and leave alone, but if reacting to serious personal abuse then I would possibly react in a similar vein.

[technical]

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30581633

Here we are. Some idiot posted his private number on a social networking site and he got loads of abuse aimed at his mother and kids. He's apologised unreservedly.

What he said was atrocious but as Muppet says, could we all say we wouldn't react in a similar way if attacked like that? And we still don't know what was actually in the text that provoked such a response. Perhaps Smith was first to raise SN?

[muppet]

The smith quote says the text were "originally about the club..........", but didn't say where they went on to from there. Sorry, but before I sign anything I need to be close to the facts and I'm not on this occasion. Anyway, seem to recall an unsavoury incident with them a few years back when they scored after we put the ball out for some injured players, seriously hasn't affected my decision though!

[holbrook]

Some Blackpool fans just want Oyston out.

 This was most likely made public for this reason, For anyone to respond as Karl Oyston did in todays PC climate was foolish and short sighted. I will not sign as I believe at best this was a stupid private exchange, at worse Oyston walked into a nasty trap set by his opponents around the club.

[Deleted]

You can understand why they would want him out. Blackpool were a laughing stock this summer.
Scally isn't perfect, but we could have worse

[jogills]

I have signed. To those, who are trying to give Oyston a fair hearing, check him out. I suspect that some fairly brief internet searching will settle your minds.

[daib0]

now nearly 5,700 signed ...

[Deleted]

Dec 29, 2014 19:31:02 GMT 1 technical said:

I think that's the crux of it though dc83. It wasn't public, it was a private text response to a text sent to a private number. I suspect you're right but we've only been allowed to see one side of this private exchange.

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression technical, it was not intended to claim that the original text was public, but that I feel there is no place for this type of comment whether it is in football, sport, or public life. In fact feel that it is a pity that it even exists in a persons thoughts, perhaps some kind of pity should be extended to any perpetrator of this type of mud slinging, they must be rather sad soles.
Stand by what I said.

[daib0]

We will probably never know exactly what that whole exchange was, but Oyston's mobile number was posted on a BFC forum, I believe. And as I understand it, and told to me, the fan did not even start the abusive comments, but simply made criticisms. Whatever was said - did it warrant the crassness of Oyston's comments regarding disabilities, 'special needs', belittling those who weren't born into the privileged life he has? Is his behaviour, not only over this incident, but amply proved over time now, befitting of a championship football club chairman and a member of the Football League board? So that's the real basis of this petition...