Sky commissions documentary on Blackpool FC fans’ battle with the Oystons

Sky has announced Don’t F*** With Fans, a Sky Original documentary about Blackpool FC’s rise to the Premier League and the long dispute that followed between the club’s owners, the Oyston family, and its supporters.

The one-off feature will be shown on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW from 21 November.

According to Sky, Blackpool was struggling near the bottom of the English football league when the Oyston family took over. In 2010, under manager Ian Holloway, the club won promotion to the Premier League, bringing in a reported £90 million.

Sky’s description says relations between the Oystons and fans began to break down once questions were raised about how that money was being used, leading to a bitter fight over the club’s future.

As Blackpool slipped back down the divisions, a group of supporters started a protest campaign that Sky describes as one of the most significant in English football history. The broadcaster says years of boycotts, guerrilla tactics and confrontation followed as the dispute became increasingly personal, taking an emotional and financial toll on everyone involved and ending with the Oystons being forced to give up control of the club.

Made by South Shore Productions, whose credits include Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, the film tells the story through the people involved. Contributors include Karl Oyston, the club’s former chairman; his father, businessman Owen Oyston; Holloway; former players; and supporters who took part in the campaign.

Sky’s head of documentary commissioning, Hayley Reynolds, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with director James Newton and the team at South Shore to bring this brilliantly British story to Sky. It’s one that goes far beyond football, bringing together family drama, community spirit and a very public battle over club ownership that feels as relevant today as ever.”

She added: “With candid testimony from people on all sides of the dispute, the film allows those at the heart of it to tell their side of an extraordinary chapter in Blackpool’s history.”

The 1×60 film was commissioned for Cécile Frot-Coutaz, Sky’s chief advertising and content officer and CEO of Sky Studios, by Phil Edgar-Jones, Sky’s executive director of unscripted originals. Jo Hughes is commissioning editor for Sky.

It is filmed and directed by three-time BAFTA winner James Newton, whose previous work includes Grenfell: The Untold Story and Gun No 6. Andrew Mackenzie-Betty and Kevin Sutcliffe are executive producers.