SEVERAL Oxford United fans are determined to infiltrate this evening's Six-O-Six show on Radio 5 to respond to David Mellor's apparent slur on the club's new owner Firoz Kassam, writes JON MURRAY.

In last week's popular radio phone-in, Mellor sabotaged a call from United supporter John Evans, who wanted to publicise an open meeting regarding the survival of Oxford United.

Mellor changed the subject and started to talk about Kassam, questioning whether he was the right kind of person to own a football club.

Mellor claimed he had received letters and faxes about Kassam which he could not read out because they might result in libel procedings.

Evans, from Millwood Vale, Long Hanborough, was so incensed by the way Mellor appeared to twist the reason for his call towards his own agenda that he has this week written a formal letter of complaint to Fraser Steel, the BBC's head of programme complaints.

"To do what he did without divulging the contents of the letters or permitting any explanation, was in itself an act of defamation," Evans said.

"I know for a fact that Kassam has been trying to get a transcript of the show to discover the exact wording Mellor used, but each time he has been fobbed off." Evans is a member of the 1,300-strong group FOUL and he added: "I know two or three members of our committee who have been trying to get through to Mellor and the show's producer, but they're getting nowhere because they keep bouncing us off.

"We might have to get on this Saturday's show, doing what he did effectively by posing as a West Ham fan or something, to get him to answer our complaints.

"As an Oxford fan I would like to know what there is in Firoz Kassam's cupboard. Personally, I don't believe there is anything, but I'd like to know.

"But it's a double-edged sword. We're aggrieved not just at the way Mellor said it without further explanation, but we also feel he was not entitled to say what he said."

Mellor was unavailable for comment and his private office said he would not take any calls on this matter.

A BBC spokesman said, however: "He is a lawyer and is very well versed in the laws of libel and slander, so knows exactly what he is able to say on air."

Story date: Saturday 08 May

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.