Blackpool Chairman, Karl Oyston has told BBC Sport that he regrets starting legal action against some supporters.
He and his father, Owen Oyston, dropped their libel case against life-long supporter, Jeremy Smith, last week. The case was dropped after it was revealed that their initial damages claim was increased from £25,000 to £250,000 the day before the court hearing was due to take place.
“in hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have taken some of the action we’ve put forward,” he said.
“However, in other cases, we were absolutely right to take action. We just had to defend some of the things that were said.
It’s a tough one, because even if we win the court case, we go on to lose. We then have to collect money from people who potentially don’t have it. In terms of what’s best for the club, that certainly isn’t in its best interests.”
He went to admit that there has been no further takeover proposal put forward, despite Blackpool Supporters Trust launching a £16 million offer last year.
“We have not had anything further and we have even taken the unprecedented step of saying we had not had an offer when some of the media reported that we had.”
I wouldn’t say it was an offer from the Supporters’ Trust,” added Oyston. “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.”
Several protests have taken place in and around Bloomfield Road in recent years, with most fans keen to see a change of ownership at the club.
Under the Oyston’s, Blackpool has fallen from the Premier League to League Two in five years.
