5 football club owners who were at the receiving end of the fans' ire

#5 Owen and Karl Oyston

Owen and Karl Oyston stripped Blackpool FC of their assets

Few fans outside of Blackpool will have heard of father-and-son duo Owen and Karl Oyston, but fans of the Seasiders completely despise their owners, particularly since it was revealed in a 2017 high court judgement that the two had been stripping assets from the football club in order to fund other business ventures they were involved in.

The Oyston family – who made their fortune in property and telecoms – initially bought shares in Blackpool in the 1980’s, and father Owen acted as chairman. A prison sentence for rape meant that he had to step down in 1996, and by 1999 his son Karl was in charge, and initially, things looked rosy – a season in the Premier League in 2010/11 followed, but since then it’s been a nasty downhill slide for the club.

By 2014 Blackpool were floundering in League One, and the fans began to protest against Oyston’s ownership, feeling he simply hadn’t done enough to invest following the lone Premier League season. In fact, the truth was even worse – the 2017 court judgment found that the Oyston family had illegitimately paid around £26.77m out of the club to other companies they owned. Ordered to pay £31m to a minority shareholder by the court, the Oystons have since put the club up for sale, but right now they remain in charge – and remain despised by Blackpool fans.