FA releases offensive Karl Oyston text messages

The Football Association has disclosed the content of the offensive text messages Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston sent a supporter that caused him to be banned from the game for six weeks.

Earlier this month the governing body handed Oyston a suspended six-week suspension which will begin on July 8, fined him £40,000 and ordered him to take an education course following abusive and insulting comments he made in a text-message exchange with supporter Stephen Smith back in mid-November.

The full details of those comments have now emerged with the FA publishing statements Oyston sent in their written reasons for the charges.

They included:

The texts were sent after Oyston's number had been published on a social media website last season during a time when supporters were becoming increasingly irate at his handling of the Seasiders.

Smith had contacted Oyston first and, during their exchange, he assured him that a group he was a member of would "crush you", accused the Blackpool chairman of being a "financial retard" and made a personal reference to one of his sons.

That provoked Oyston to react with a string of expletive-laden messages which eventually resulted in the FA charges and subsequent ban from the game.

In the findings, it was also revealed that Oyston's ban had been delayed until next month to allow him to devolve power to someone else, allowing the club to run during the transfer window in his absence.