Blackpool supporters are set to launch a takeover bid

The Blackpool Supporters' Trust have revealed they are brokering a bid to take over the football club, which they intend to announce publicly at the end of June.

Chairman Steve Roland told Sky Sports that Blackpool’s decline from memorable days in the Premier League - including a famous 2-1 win against Liverpool at Anfield - to the humiliation of relegation from the Championship, has forced the Supporters' Trust into action.

In the four years since they lost top-flight status on the last day of the 2010-11 season, Blackpool have seen the squad decimated and they now have a team of loan players and free transfers - the majority of whom are out of contract this summer.

Blackpool’s decline was further confirmed by the club finishing bottom of the Championship with just 25 points.

Roland insists this is not a knee-jerk reaction to last Saturday’s well-documented protests during the match with Huddersfield Town, and says talks to buy out Blackpool have been underway for several months.

He admits any bid for the club is likely to be rejected but warns that if things remain the same, supporters will vote with their feet and may refuse to attend Bloomfield Road under the current ownership of multi-millionaire majority shareholder Owen Oyston and Latvian businessman Valeri Belokon, who own a 20% stake in the club.

Karl Oyston is the club’s current chairman and he has publicly declared the Oyston family have no intention of selling their stake in the club. Local paper The Blackpool Gazette reports that any takeover bid is expected to involve Belokon working in conjunction with another interested party.

“What happened on Saturday was the result of the fans' frustrations that the Oystons don’t appear to be listening to the critiques coming their way about the way the club is being managed,”said chairman Roland.

“There’s been an enormous amount of money pouring into Blackpool FC and in the view of the majority of fans most of that has not gone into the football side of the business.

“We are hoping to put something that would be financially attractive to them which would persuade them to go. I think that is the only message they are likely to listen to. We are looking for change and the way the club is run should change. I expect the Oystons will reject it - but at least they will look at it seriously.

“There is a very deep-felt feeling by many, many thousands of fans and it just seems to be something that is increasing rather than decreasing.

“Worst case, we could find the majority of the die-hard supporters of Blackpool end up doing what Coventry fans did a few seasons ago and only go to away games.

"Blackpool could be playing at Bloomfield Road to a two-thirds empty stadium over the next year or two. I think people will vote to not give the Oystons revenue that makes the football club viable.”