Blackpool fans prepare for many happy returns after ousting the Oystons

Volunteer David Reidy makes a start on cleaning seats.
Dave Reidy was back in Bloomfield Road for the first time in four years as a volunteer to clean the stadium seats after the fans' boycott came to an end with the ousting of the Oystons Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian for The Telegraph

David Reidy was back in Bloomfield Road for the first time in four years on Thursday. The Blackpool supporter of nearly six decades had brought with him a couple of buckets to do some cleaning. Over the previous three days, he had scrubbed more than 1,000 of the orange plastic seats, getting them ready for Saturday’s match.

“The ones in the corner were the worst,” he said. “The seagulls seemed drawn to them. They had four years of muck encrusted on them. On some, it was six inches deep. It was really disgusting.” 

As visual metaphors go, it would be hard to beat what was going on in Blackpool’s home stadium this week, as years of accumulated filth was being washed away to ready the place for the League One fixture against Southend United.

Normally, this would be an encounter dismissed as the very definition of run-of-the-mill. But, after what happened in the High Court two weeks ago, it has become a match charged with emotion. Because, for the first time since May 2015, Bloomfield Road will be packed with Blackpool supporters.

After four seasons, the longest-running fans’ boycott in English football is over. Since it became clear that the unpopular ownership of the Oyston family is no more, the supporters have been excitedly preparing to return. Already, nearly 15,000 tickets have been sold, which suggests – given that in the club’s brief sojourn in the Premier League, 1,200 seats were given to visiting supporters – this could be the biggest gathering of Blackpool fans at the place in 40 years. No wonder locally they are calling it “The Homecoming”.

“I can’t wait,” said manager Terry McPhillips. “This place has been an empty shell. Saturday is going to go down in history as the biggest day ever for our supporters. And rightly so. It’s their club, in my opinion.” 

Supporters are volunteering to help clean parts of the club's stadium 
Some of the seats had four years of accumulated guano on them  Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian for The Telegraph

That is not a view shared by Owen Oyston. Until two weeks ago, he was McPhillips’s boss. Rather than believing it belonged to its fans, after buying the club for £1 in 1987, Oyston, a local estate agent, preferred to refer to himself as “Mr Blackpool”. He had a penthouse flat overlooking the Bloomfield Road pitch, where the 85-year-old liked to entertain his guests. In 1996, when he went to prison for raping a 16-year-old girl, his son Karl took charge. 

Between them, the Oystons kept Blackpool bobbing between the third and fourth tiers of English football. But then, in 2006, they sold 25 per cent of the club to the Latvian businessman Valeri Belokon. Thanks to his ambitious injection of funds (Belokon personally paid the transfer fee for Charlie Adam and rebuilt the south stand). Blackpool found themselves unexpectedly in the Premier League. 

The elevation suddenly put the Oystons in the money. After strategically sidelining Belokon from decision-making processes, following the Premier League season Oyston Snr paid himself a bonus of £11  million. A further £30m was taken in loans. While the training ground was in urgent need of modernisation, the club bought a hotel and a country house wedding venue.

Watching what was happening, Richard Scudamore, then chief executive of the Premier League, told Oyston Snr that were the club to remain in the top flight, he would be obliged to step down. Oyston did not mind: despite Ian Holloway’s enthusiastic leadership, the club were relegated to the Championship and the English Football League did not seem to share Scudamore’s  concern at the relentless asset stripping.

Tim Fielding
Tim Fielding was the first chairman of the supporters trust and was sued by Own Oyston Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian for The Telegraph

The fans, however, did. They were growing increasingly perplexed at the manner in which the club were being run. The Blackpool Supporters’ Trust was formed, with the aim of change. Its first chairman was Tim Fielding, a local solicitor.

“We wanted a tangible legacy from the Premier League years, like they had at Burnley,” he explained, as he sat in the stadium ahead of the Southend game. “Things were so bad, we didn’t even have toilets at the training ground, the players had to go in the bushes.” 

Instead of addressing such worries, Oyston preferred to deploy alternative tactics. Fifteen supporters were sued for defamation; one pensioner was obliged to pay £40,000 after holding up a sign at a home match which suggested the owner was a liar; Fielding himself had to pay a settlement of £20,000 and stand down as chairman of the trust. It was not just supporters: Joey Barton and Graeme Le Saux were sued after comments made in punditry. 

As relationships soured, and Blackpool sank through the divisions, burning through a succession of managers, at the beginning of the 2015-16 season the trust took the nuclear option of organising a boycott of home games. Under the title “Not A Penny More”, the aim was to starve the Oystons of income. Sponsors were shunned, nobody bought the club shirt. But for the fans, not going to games was the ultimate sacrifice.

Dave Reidy
David Reidy says the boycott hurt but the return after finally getting rid of Oyston is going to be amazing Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian for The Telegraph

“It left a massive hole in everyone’s life,” reckoned Fielding. “We’d come down to the ground on match days and hand out leaflets to visiting supporters asking them not to buy anything inside, then at 3pm we’d go home. And that went on for four years.” 

The boycott was almost total. Average crowds sank from 14,000 to 4,000 – most of whom were away fans. The club were running at a £2 m annual deficit. The Oystons, however, seemed to take perverse pleasure in antagonism. Karl drove around Blackpool in a car with the registration plate “OY51 OUT”. He called the fans “intellectual cripples” and “massive retards”. But the family had not accounted for Belokon.

Demanding his share of the Premier League income, he took them to court. And last month, in front of some 60 Blackpool fans filling the public gallery, a High Court judge finally found in the Latvian’s favour; Blackpool, he ruled, had been “illegitimately stripped” of its assets. Moreover, he insisted that, as Oyston was not prepared to pay what was due from his own pocket, the club be sold to cover the costs.

Steve Rowland, secretary of the Blackpool Supporters' Trust
Steve Rowland is secretary of the Blackpool Supporters' Trust which played the key role in starving the Oystons of income with its 'Not a penny more' campaign Credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian for The Telegraph

“The boycott was relevant to the last,” said Fielding. “Because the judge realised that if the club was to raise a sufficient price to pay off Belokon, then it had to be lifted. And for that to happen, Oyston had to be removed from the board.” 

Since the judgment, the former owner has not been seen around the place; the curtains are firmly closed on his penthouse. In his stead, a new board was formed, with Fielding co-opted on to it.

“Everywhere you look, there are clubs in trouble: Port Vale, Coventry, Bolton,” he said. “I just hope that they use us as a case study to help beef up football’s regulations.” As he spoke, outside in the stadium the fans were tirelessly at their volunteer cleaning duties.

“Four years of neglect, it was a total mess,” said Fielding. “None of the big screens worked, the pitch was awful, the seats hadn’t been cleaned in years.” But a bit of physical decay did not seem to worry those who will be finally back in the place they love.

“It really hurt not coming here,” said Reidy as he paused from his work. “I always listened for the results, it never leaves you. So, it’s going to be amazing being here again. I don’t think I’ll be alone in shedding a tear when the teams come out that tunnel.”

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