Arsenal v Blackpool: the current state of Blackpool FC and its owners

By Bulldog Drummond

I have left the issue of the crisis at Blackpool FC until now in the vague hope that I might be able to discover a definitive report or two but I’m struggling to know exactly what’s what. So if there are errors in this, please do put me right, ideally with some source of evidence.

Basically in November 2017, all of Blackpool FC including the ground and other properties it owns was offered for sale by its owners, the Oyston family. No one seems to want to buy it, and of late there appears to have been a split in the family as Karl Oyston, son of the infamous Owen Oyston left the club, and as far as I can tell all Oyston business activities. OO’s daughter Natalie Christopher was put in charge.

Meanwhile, as far as I can tell the owners have not yet complied with the High Court order to pay a minority shareholder Valeri Belokon £31.27m. This followed a court finding that the Oyston’s had been involved in asset stripping and thus reduced the value of the shares.

£10m was paid but no more (as far as I know) but after that I am not sure. Just recently Oyston senior given legal notice to pay the remaining £25m he owes Belokon, but Oyston’s company issued a statement saying that the delay was Belokon’s fault, adding, “It would appear that Valeri, who is ignoring all overtures on this front, would rather proceed with further court actions rather than facilitate the payment of the judgment debt.”

And that’s as far as I can go from what I know. So back to matters on the pitch

What we have been told is that Cech will play in goal – which also could indicate that the manager will use the technique favoured by Arsene Wenger of playing one keeper in the league and one in all the cup games – unless injury get in the way.

The only thing apart from that so far revealed is that Mr Emery will put out a team with a mix of youngsters and first teamers. There are contradictory statements around as to whether either Nacho Monreal or Sead Kolasinac will get a game as a warm up to the match against Liverpool. The majority view is they won’t get a game but Ainsley Maitland-Niles will.

And Blackpool could include Marc Bola who came through from the Arsenal academy

A victory for us with mean we are in the quarter finals for the third consecutive year – you might recall we had fun beating Reading 2-0 in 2016/17 and Norwich in 2017/18 (2-1). The last time that Blackpool caused an upset was a 3-1 win over Chelsea (then under R. Gullit, in the League Cup in September 1996.

But there is going to be a difference tonight. When we play teams from the lower leagues in the cups we are used to the whole lower clock end being filled with fans having a jolly day out – supporting their team with great noise and vigour even though the odds on winning are very very small. We’ve already seen that this season.

However instead of the 7500 or so that make up the lower clock end allocation, Blackpool have taken just 1,300 tickets, at leats according to the Blackpool Gazette, which may or may not be a valuable source of information. They continue, “The majority of those will be season ticket holders or family and friends of the players. There is still a boycott in place of the clubs game and so many people will not be travelling to London for the game.”

This boycott started in 2015 after it was alleged that the club loaned £100m that it got from the Premier League season to other companies owned by the Oyston group. Of course I don’t have any information to say if that is so.

They do go to away games normally, but because in this match, 45% of the gate money goes to the away club (a standard cup rule) that would mean giving money to Oyston, so they won’t go. According to a report in the Independent there are around 10,000 supporters now avoiding matches.

In 1996 Oyston senior was imprisoned for rape, serving three years inside. This means he is no longer a fit and proper person to be a club director of a Premier League club – although he ignored this ruling and just stayed there.

7 Replies to “Arsenal v Blackpool: the current state of Blackpool FC and its owners”

I my wife and two sons supported Blackpool football club for over 40 years and its extremely sad that We won’t be at the Emerates this evening because of one family,the Oystons. The misappropriation of the premier league parachute payments has sickened thousands of Blackpool supporters so much that there is an ethical boycot of anything that puts money onto the Oystons coffers.
I will always want the best for my team but I wont return untill the Oyston family left the club.

Ian I think most Arsenal fans will fully appreciate your position. Certainly as a person who has an affection for several lower league clubs I know the pain that can be felt when a bad owner comes along and destroys the club. We’ll obviously be there tonight, but I’m sure many will be supporting the stand you have taken.

Despite that Blackpool FC fans are having problem with the club owners leading to them boycotting the club’s matches. The important thing in the match for Arsenal as far as they are concerned is to beat Blackpool today’s night at the Ems to qualify for the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup competition. And I believe that’s exactly what Arsenal will do to Blackpool in tonight’s Cup match between the duo clubs.

Standard disgraceful double standards from the FA.

@ Ian Brookes

As a Gooner for over 40 years I fully support your actions.

Arsenal v Blackpool
DAVID COOTE
(19:45 )
Assistant Referees: Simon Long and Sian Massey-Ellis
Fourth Official: Andre Marriner

David Coote has done 2 EPL games this year, overseeing a total of 5 treatments. The first game had 1 treatment to both home and away. The second game had 2 treatments to the home team and 1 to away.

Just using my EPL data, we have seen the following Home:Away treatments:
0:0 13

0:1 14
1:0 11

0:2 4
2:0 8
1:1 14

0:3 5
1:2 6
2:1 4
3:0 3

0:4 4
1:3 1
2:2 3
3:1 1
4:0 0

0:5 0
1:4 0
2:3 0
3:2 0
4:1 1
5:0 1

Others
3:3 2
3:4 1
4:3 2
8:3 1
11:0 1

The 2 games David Coote has done, have among the more common patterns for treatment needs, so aren’t unusual in any respect.

Bournemouth (v Norwich) got Lee Mason.
Leicester v Southampton got Roger East.
Chel$ea (v Derby) get Jonathon Moss.
CPalace (at Middlesbrough) get Paul Tierney.
State Aid v the spuds get Stuart Attwell.
Man$ity v Fulham get Martin Atkinson.

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7 Replies to “Arsenal v Blackpool: the current state of Blackpool FC and its owners”

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