It was always weird. Always bizarre.

On the Craven Cottage grounds of Fulham FC, a Premier League soccer club based in London … a large and vivid statue of Michael Jackson.

Yes, that Michael Jackson. The eccentric if prodigiously talented pop star. Caught while executing a dance move.

The statue went up outside the Hammersmith Stand at the club in April of 2011, and for more than two years Fulham fans fumed over it.

Finally, they are getting some relief.

How this happened:

In 1999, Jacko visited Craven Cottage as a guest of Mohamed Al Fayed, a native of Egypt and a wealthy guy who owned the club and is probably still best known, outside England, as the father of Dodi Fayed, who was accompanying Princess Diana when she died in a car crash in 1997.

The whole of it seems like the nutty whim of a rich guy. (He previously had put up statues of his son and Princess Di at Harrods, when he was chairman of the famous London store.)

The Craven Cottage wiki page goes to pains to point out that Fulham fans had nothing to do with the Jacko statue. “The singer, who died in 2009, was not a Fulham fan and had no interest in football whatsoever, but attended a Fulham match once, saying ‘Fulham fans were like people at my concerts. I wanted to jump up and start dancing’ — and was friends with club chairman Mohamed Al Fayed, who commissioned the statue.”

So, in 1999, the King of Pop found himself at the stadium, and he must have thought it was weird, too. He doesn’t seem comfortable, in this video, taking off a Fulham scarf fairly quickly. He shook hands with some kids, toured the grand and opened a parasol while walking past fans, who are clapping with a clear lack of enthusiasm.

So, the statue went up in April of 2011, and the reviews were not kind. Said one art critic: “It’s a spectacularly bad piece of kitsch that doesn’t even look all that much like Michael Jackson.”

And fans were not happy.

Asked one: “Why? Why us? Fulham football fans do not want a statue of Michael Jackson. It’s completely mad. He’s got nothing to do with us. To be honest, he’s the last person you would want there.”

That sort of reaction annoyed the club’s owner. “If some stupid fans don’t understand and appreciate such a gift this guy gave to the world, they can go to hell. I don’t want them to be fans,” Al Fayed said.

Fulham fans caught a break over the summer when the team was sold to Shahid Khan, a wealthy Pakistani-American who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After listening to the complaints of fans, Khan this week promised to get Jacko out of Craven Cottage.

“Our supporters’ views on the statue have been made clear. I respect Mr. Fayed and know he had good intentions in paying an individual tribute,” Khan said. “However, the removal of the statue is the right thing for Fulham Football Club.”

Apparently, the status is going back to Mohamed Al Fayed.  I believe the words Fulham fans might use are: “Good riddance”.