Blackpool owner Owen Oyston has ended talks with the club’s Supporters’ Trust over a possible takeover. The Trust had launched a £16m bid in July.
In a letter on the club’s website, Oyston said: ‘I believe that if you were left to run the club you would go to the wall because you do not have any money or the experience necessary to support the club in its moment of need.’
‘It would be irresponsible of me to simply hand this over to you as it is clear to any independent observer that you could not operate it successfully.’
Blackpool owner Owen Oyston has ended talks with the club’s Supporters’ Trust over a possible takeover. The Trust had launched a £16m bid in July.
In a letter on the club’s website, Oyston said: ‘I believe that if you were left to run the club you would go to the wall because you do not have any money or the experience necessary to support the club in its moment of need.’
‘It would be irresponsible of me to simply hand this over to you as it is clear to any independent observer that you could not operate it successfully.’
An independent observer might question how successful Oyston’s stewardship of the club has been. From being in the Premier League, the club is hovering just above the relegation places in League One.
The complicated proposals would have seen BST hand assets to the Oyston family, including the Travelodge hotel land near the stadium and Quernmore Park Hall in Lancaster. BST would also write off £3m in outstanding loans from the club to Oyston-owned businesses along with the £7m debt to club president Valeri Belokon.
But importantly for Oyston, the offer involved no cash. He added: ‘The proposal that you put to me which the press referred to as a £23m hostile bid and which you, both in your letter and publicly have stated is a £16m bid, is as you have now admitted no bid at all, but an invitation for me to give you all the assets and cash without you producing one penny of new money.’