No new approach to buy the club, says Oyston

The Blackpool Supporters' Trust (BST), whose members are supporting an "ethical boycott" of all matches at Bloomfield Road, launched a £16m bid to buy the club last year.

However, the bid was rejected and Karl Oyston described the proposal as "unreasonable". Since that bid, there have been no new approaches according to the Blackpool chairman.

“No we have not had anything further,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“We’ve even taken the unprecedented step, which is something we have not often done in my time at Blackpool, of putting a statement out to say we we hadn’t had an offer when some of the media had and no one stood that up.”

Attendances at Bloomfield Road have tumbled in recent seasons as fans continue to boycott their games.

Many fans wish to see a change of ownership, a stance adopted by the BST.

"I wouldn't say it was an offer from the Supporters' Trust," Mr Oyston added. "They were expecting us to hand over substantial sums, assets and cash to them and I wouldn't say it was ridiculous, but it was verging on that.

"And no we have not had anything further and we have even taken the unprecedented step over saying we had not had an offer when some of the media reported that we had."

Mr Oyston also reiterated his concession that the club should have avoided taking legal action against some fans, as reported by The Gazette last week.As reported, Karl and Owen Oyston dropped legal action against lifelong Blackpool fan Jeremy Smith last week.

The civil case was brought against Mr Smith after he was pictured holding up a doctored Gazette front page featuring Owen Oyston, with part of the headline scribbled out.

It was later revealed the Oystons had bid to increase damages from £25,000 to £250,000 just days before the case was due to start.

The Oystons have successfully sued fans over comments they have made in public about their running of the club. Legal action also continues against a number of fans after the pitch invasion which led to Pool’s home game against Huddersfield in May 2015 being abandoned.