FOOTBALL fans determined to oust Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley from the St James’ Park hot-seat are planning to target the tycoon's business interests this weekend.

Members of the Ashley Out campaign are organising peaceful demonstrations outside Sports Direct stores within a 20-mile radius of the ground on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, supporters of the campaign are also being encouraged to stand up after 34 minutes of Saturday’s home game with Swansea, to denote the £34m the club’s recently-declared profit.

A statement released by the Ashley Out campaign reads: "From 12:30pm on Saturday, we will target Sports Direct stores within a 20-mile radius of St. James’ Park and their flagship Oxford Street store by means of a peaceful protest.

"Further details regarding this protest will be released shortly but we wish to emphasise that this must be a peaceful protest and is aimed at Mike Ashley and the shareholders of Sports Direct International plc.

"This protest is not aimed at the innocent staff members often working with minimal employment rights on zero hours contracts and they must be respected and supported at all times.

"This protest will be coordinated with supporters of Rangers Football Club who will target stores in the vicinity of Ibrox."

Thousands of fans took part in a boycott of Sunday's home defeat to Spurs.

The statement added: "The boycott for the Spurs game was only the start. We would like to widen the campaign at this stage to include Mike Ashley’s main interest, which is Sports Direct and affiliated companies and will shortly be launching a new section on our website dedicated to things every fan can do to ensure that Mike Ashley’s involvement becomes an ever-less profitable one for him and his companies."

Target stores include Northumberland Street, in Newcastle city centre, two in Gateshead, as well as outlets in Durham, Sunderland and Peterlee among others.