Blackpool fan apologises to club's owners over defamatory comments

A Blackpool fan has apologised to the club's owner Owen Oyston and chairman Karl Oyston for posting defamatory comments on an internet forum.

Tangerines fan Stephen Sharpe took back comments he made about the club and has apologised to the Oystons, who took legal action against the accusations.

Sharpe accepts the comments were "false, defamatory and, in some cases, threatening".

"Mr Sharpe now accepts that his posts were defamatory and involved an 'imputation of grossly disreputable conduct such as to harm the reputations of the Oystons and Blackpool Football Club in general and that of Owen Oyston in particular'," a statement read on Blackpool's official website.

"Mr Sharpe has unreservedly withdrawn his posts after accepting that they were 'false, defamatory and, in some cases, threatening' [and] 'sincerely and unreservedly' apologises."

The fan donated £5,000 to the Blackpool FC Community Trust, after the club came to a "satisfied, sensible and proportionate outcome".