Off Topic Blackpool owners taking Legal action against their own fans?!

Have contributed to a worthy cause

£14,720 raised so far (13.40 on 19th April)

 

Thank you very much.
Just over £15k now
There's a debate ongoing about the best way to either pay Oyston and hand over the fund monies to achieve best publicity (or maximum annoyance!)

 

For maximum annoyance, why not count it out to him, and have the prat with the drum banging away for every penny.

 

Postal orders are a pain.....he'd have to go in himself to collect

Maybe slip a few of those in

 

£19,675 raised as of 7.41am on 20/4/15.......nearly there

Up yours Oyston!

 

What a load of mugs.

I'm glad it's been raised but they ain't telling us what he said. The old codger really could deserve it.

 

Be careful what you wish for..........................it could cost a lot

 

He can't tell you what he said, neither can the campaign.

 

neither do I care

 

Yep, target reached, thanks to all Hull City fans who helped in any way.

On the subject of libel, the fund organiser has been on the radio.
He acknowledged that what Frank said was wrong, but said that the punishment did not fit the crime.
I think that this is the driving force behind the campaign - the comments were made to 34 Facebook friends (and I understand that all but around 10 of those were family).
I'm sure you can appreciate that the situation at the club has caused some heated opinions, not least those from Karl Oyston himself which has resulted in FA charges.
Yes, defamation needs to have consequences, but let's make them reasonable and not an opportunity for vindictive payback.

The local paper takes advertising revenue from the Oystons and has sat on the fence for years, much to the annoyance of many fans, but this is what it had to say:

"Having seen the comments in question, I'm not going to sit here and tell you they were fair, nor am I going to deny there was legal vindication for action by the Oyston family. But £20,000 damages? It seems incredibly excessive. Surely a public apology and a retraction would have been more than enough.

For me, this should signal the end of all the nonsense. The Oystons should rise above chasing people for messageboard comments and put their efforts into either rebuilding this totally damaged club or finding another business to run. They simply can't go on building such a divide between themselves and their supporters. Legal action against the fans will serve absolutely no useful purpose in helping this football club move forward and should end now."

Regardless of the rights or wrongs, it's been really heartening to see the 'football family' rallying round.
An awful situation has been turned into what we see as a spectacular own goal for the Oystons.
Cheers!

 

Rather than draw a line, could the campaign ask that the Oyston's donate the money to Charity as a gesture? After all, they're not out of pocket from the comments are they?

That way, they don't gain financially, and a charity rather than them could benefit from the support shown to the Blackpool fan.

If they don't donate it, they could damage their name more than a few words on Facebook did.

 

Raisin, what's the realistic chance of them selling?

They seem to have skins like Rhinos.

 

It strikes me that this now clearly sends a message out to owners that individually owners are financially stonger that most individual supporters, but collectively, as it has shown whichever club we support fans will rally round and support each other, and can be collectively, be as strong as the majority owners.

 

Kinell you have to admire their balls. Not even a hint of a sense of shame or regret there whatsoever.

It's good they're giving the cash to charity, but, ffs, thousands in a bank account, 25% handed over, 75 %left for a year, accruing interest, then another 25% handed over...50% left accruing interest....

They really are detestable.

How the actual hell have they not been run out of town and the club?

Not sure why anyone would target a charity accepting money though, what the hell would that achieve? Do the fans want these scumbags to keep the money? Surely if any good can come out of this awful saga its local charities benefiting?

Baffling.

 

As you say, baffling.
I wish I knew what their end game is, I really do.

As for running them out of town, I posted on a Millwall forum and got a typically robust response
"No director would dare sue any fan here. His house would be ****ing burnt down"

They're playing with fire now. The whole family have constant body guarding. It only takes a psycho with a gun licence or moderately sharp kitchen knife.

 

But just as baffling is fans, allegedly, threatening charities accepting money from the payouts via them. Please tell me that isn't true. If it is true, what the actual **** is the logic behind that?

 

My understanding was that the payments from the first two cases went to the Blackpool FC Community Trust.
I don't know exactly how it links to the club but it does great work.
It's news to me that there's been a problem but it doesn't surprise me.
Feelings are running high and there are always some hotheads / arseholes.
I'll do some digging as to what's actually happened.

 

So, the first fan's payment of £5k went to the Community Trust.
The £10k from the chairman of Blackpool Supporter's Trust didn't, it went to Blackpool FC
The apology from Frank Knight said that the £20k was to BFC as well.
I can only speculate as to what actually happened to the £10k and why they have now released the statement regarding the £20k ... So I won't!

Have no further info about the "Adverse reaction" yet ... inevitably some will think it's just spin to put the 'mob' in poor light while the Oystons play the victim, but I can imagine that comments about 'blood money' etc. will have been passed.