BST Statement on the sacking of Jose Riga: After weeks of mixed messages from the owners and one aborted sacking, Jose Riga has finally been fired by the chairman of Blackpool FC – and so the fiasco continues at Bloomfield Road. Many of us have been impressed by Riga, not only for the way in which he saved Charlton last year, but also for the style of football he attempted to bring back to this club and the principled way in which he has conducted himself. We felt that, given appropriate backing and resources by the owners, Jose would prove to be the first good manager we have had since Ian Holloway. Sadly – and some would say predictably - the owners have opted to sack Riga rather than make those appropriate resources available to him. So much for the fresh start and change for the better we were promised this season. All we’ve had from the custodians of our beloved Blackpool FC is another summer of disorganisation and discontent, morphing predictably into our worst league start ever! What we appear to have witnessed in recent months is the destruction of the football club by the very people charged with looking after it. It says everything about the state of our club that a manager with a record of just six points from 14 league games is still so popular amongst fans. He was allegedly only able to bring in two of his targeted signings [among the nineteen who joined the club recently]; he couldn’t recruit the backroom staff he required and even the simplest of issues appeared to become a minefield. Yet Jose Riga’s willingness to address these issues head on and speak his mind about the circumstances he found himself in, whilst acting with dignity and respect, won him many admirers among supporters, even though ‘behaving properly’ may have hastened his sacking. In contrast, the Chairman’s attempt some weeks ago to recruit a replacement while Riga was still in position was perceived by the fans to be unethical. Karl Oyston has repeatedly stated that Blackpool FC are a club who do things the right way - but recent events have left us feeling that the organisation no longer practices what it preaches. As supporters, we care deeply about the club’s reputation and how it reflects on the town. Ordinary followers of the club want to see better from the people who purportedly run it – and what has been happening over the last several months is no way to run a football club. It is the Chairman’s prerogative to axe, rather than back, the manager he brought in to turn the club’s fortunes around, but it looks to many as though Riga is being made a scapegoat for poor planning and under-investment over many months by Blackpool’s owners. BST and BSA have both called for better support for Riga and for more investment in the infrastructure, training facilities and playing staff of our club, investment that the owners themselves have said they are in a position to make “if required”. The sacking of Jose Riga would seem not to address the problems at all. The appointment of yet another new manager will doubtless be accompanied by calls for us to put divisions behind us and unite behind him and his team. That might work if we weren’t already united behind Riga and his team. Surely the owners must see that the division exists not between fans and manager or team, but between fans and the owners. A new manager will not change that deeply-rooted disaffection. The need for real and substantial change at Blackpool FC has never been greater. Valeri Belokon, the club President, is deeply unhappy about the current malaise. He said in a recent interview: “I fell in love with Blackpool. I received different proposals to buy other English clubs but this is about heart and soul…I have no other club.” The majority of supporters will echo those sentiments. We care passionately about the club, its past, its present and its future. At the moment, both the present and the future are looking grim. In any other business, those responsible for this shambles would probably have been dismissed. However, our owners have initiated changes to the rules governing the football club which place even more power into their hands and they appear to have chosen, once more, to blame someone else for the problems that they, the Oystons, are responsible for. That is just not acceptable. The message to the owners from Blackpool Supporters’ Trust is clear and unequivocal – put football first or sell the club to someone that will.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:49:55 +0000
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