Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Free tickets for Wigan match

On behalf of our members, SISA recognise and applaud the Club's initiative in offering season ticket holders the opportunity of a free ticket to attend what is a crucial game this Saturday at the DW Stadium v Wigan.

We hope the additional support that should travel on Saturday as a result of the offer will be the 12th man Barry and the team need to help secure our Championship status.

UTMP and Football First

For more information on the Club's announcement click here 

You can get your free tickets here. Hurry as there are only 3,000 available!

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Naming the Supporters Trust

Last night saw the inaugural meeting of the Trust Working Party who were tasked at the recent Public Meeting with the responsibility of setting up BFC’s Supporters Trust.

One of the initial tasks is to finalise the Trust’s trading name.

The Working Party invites nominations from all Blackpool fans and residents for consideration.

Nominations should be sent by email to kevin.boroduwicz@sisa-bfc.co.uk to be received no later than 27th April 2014.

All nominations will then be considered by the Working Party at their next meeting on 30th April who will shortlist the submissions.

Those selected will then be put to a public vote through BFC fan groups, all BFC forums, social media and hopefully the local press following that meeting to a time frame yet to be agreed.


This is your opportunity to assist the Working Party decide on the name of Blackpool’s Supporters Trust and we look forward to receiving your nominations.

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

LFA Cup Final - Ticket Details

On Wednesday 23 April at 7pm at Bloomfield the Blackpool Youth team take on Oldham Athletic in the Lancashire FA Cup final.

This game is free to all season ticket holders. Let's get behind the lad and turn up in numbers!

More details here

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Youth Team reach the final!

The most notable positivity around the Football Club this season has been the success of the Youth Team.

Earlier in the season many turned out at Bloomfield Road to see a spirited display in the third round of the FA Youth Cup against a much vaunted Liverpool side. Check out some World class finishes from our hottest prospects below.



Already crowned Champions of the North West League our Youth side is now in contention to win Lancashire FA Professional Youth Cup!

Following a 4-1 win against Preston (always a bonus) the side will now face Oldham Athletic in the final on Wednesday 23rd April at 7pm. Check out the highlights of the semi final below.


When we find out ticket and venue information we will report back. It would be fantastic if we could all get behind the Youth team who may hold the key to our future success.

Monday, 14 April 2014

Your Views

At SISA we encourage debate amongst supporters and always want to hear your views. We were sent the below article from SISA Member Gary Stansfield.

If you want to see your thoughts posted on the Blog email us at info@sisa-bfc.co.uk.

Karl Oyston claims to be a business/finance man and not a football man. However, he has been the BFC football decision-maker by virtue of his negotiations with players/managers and, as such, is solely responsible for the club's relegation which is now inevitable. With managers with strong personalities such as Ian Holloway and Paul Ince, this was probably an effective working arrangement, but in deciding to turn to an inexperienced manager in Barry Ferguson (despite all his football knowledge) and ask him to right the catastrophic damage that had preceded the start of his tenure, was only ever going to end in tragedy. The withdrawal of the loan players at the end of December with no replacement until the end of January was particularly the BFC throat-slitter and as KO was the manager at the helm during all of this process, I am very clear that he alone should pay a penalty - ideally equivalent to that of any other organisational manager which had produced such a shambolic performance - get rid of him!!
  
However, all that is in the real world and the minimum that we must accept is that KO must acknowledge the errors of his management decisions and clearly communicate with his paying customers how he will rectify his errors. Again though, his track record suggests that KO's game plan will be to go into hiding until the furore dies down, albeit silencing himself and his son from resorting to the usual mockery and taunts of a very reasonable BFC fan base. KO must, therefore, be hounded until he at least agrees to the creation of a more open and transparent style by the club with it's fans including the production of a detailed, negotiated, agreed and produced Business Plan. Additionally, I believe that the appointment of an independent (i.e. not Sam!) Club Manager, that sits between himself and the next appointed football manager, who is solely responsible for all football, club and communication matters and overseeing the success of the Plan, has to be made immediately.

There is only one reason/person why we are rudderless after all!! UTP!!  

Saturday, 12 April 2014

The Supporters Trust gets voted in!

On Saturday 5th April the Public Vote for a Supporters Trust received unanimous backing from 125 people present at the No 1 club together with another 250 individual postal/email votes sent by exiles and others unable to attend the meeting.

Supporters Direct have given their backing for a Trust to be established for Blackpool FC.



A working party will now take the necessary steps over the coming months to make the Blackpool FC Supporters Trust a reality.

We would like to express our thanks to everyone who attended as well as those of you who have tweeted, emailed or otherwise expressed your support for the idea of a Trust.
You can watch the full meeting at the links below:

Statement

The events off the pitch at following the match with Derby were every bit as telling as the action on it. SISA’s view is that last night’s events were the inevitable result of 3 years of misguided and self-serving policies that have seen our owners prioritise their non-football related business interests at the expense of the football club.

The demise of the team in terms of the quality of performance and entertainment value has coincided with a sequence of disastrous decisions that have seen BFC  fall from the heights we saw under the guidance of Ian Holloway to the position where we now stare into the abyss that relegation to League One would bring.

These policies have been mirrored by increased levels of dissatisfaction amongst the fans and increasingly vociferous protests about the direction the club is heading.

Last night the disappointment and anger of the crowd resulted in actions that made it absolutely clear to our owners that to continue to  ignore and mock the fans was no longer going to be accepted.

The question of how it has got to the point where a good number of one of the most reasonable sets of supporters  in the country felt that they had no better option than to resort to direct action towards the owners of the club needs to be answered.

It is at this point, hopefully, that the chairman Karl Oyston seriously considers his own role in events. His willingness to openly mock the fans, and effectively their passion for the club, at every opportunity, betrays a complete disregard for his customers and an inability to understand their relationship to the club.

Further Karl’s continued unwillingness to engage with fans representatives in the form of SISA and to also attempt to mock and belittle their efforts has certainly not helped and has undoubtedly further damaged the relationship between the owners and the support. It is also to be noted that even the very few fans that he is willing to meet with appear to have barely any influence whatsoever upon him. His actions and words seem often to court controversy and confrontation. Allowing, indeed encouraging your most loyal customers to believe that not only do they have no say, but also that they have no value – must surely be one of the most self-defeating mistakes that an owner can make.

Things need to change and they need to change now. The fan base won’t be placated as they were last season by empty promises and cheap season tickets. There is a huge amount to do in order to address the issues that our owners have created and to stabilise the position we find ourselves in.

The starting point must be for both Owen and Karl to acknowledge the mistakes made , engage with the wider fan base and put in place a manifesto to ensure that whether we survive in The Championship this season or not they will stop treating BFC as their CASH COW and put FOOTBALL FIRST.

Regards,
The SISA Committee