Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Superb letter Fatbadger.
"Impoverished" was an inspired choice of word to use. Good work fella.
"Impoverished" was an inspired choice of word to use. Good work fella.
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
'Albion reject Archer £60,000'
- Thread starter John Boy
- Start date
Brightonian74
New member
you Archer, you and go a sheep
Curious Orange
Punxsatawney Phil
A principled Chairman of a football club. Makes a nice change doesn't it.
Storer68
New member
Note to Fatbadger
You should have written it to Sir Brian..............................
You should have written it to Sir Brian..............................
SussexHoop
New member
- Dec 7, 2003
- 887
I'm sure you could do with the cash but that really is a top decision by your board. 
The shame is that no other club will show their support and follow suit.
The shame is that no other club will show their support and follow suit.
Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
this is winging its way to the FL tonight.
Dear Sir Brian,
I am writing to express my revulsion with regard to the recent £500,000 sponsorship deal which has been agreed between Focus Wickes and the Football League. Having agreed to this deal, I can only presume that you are unaware as to the history of the Focus Wickes chairman Bill Archer. If that is the case, here is a summary of Bill Archer's Chairmanship of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club.
Back in 1993, Bill Archer acquired a controlling interest in Brighton and Hove Albion for the princely sum of £56.25p. During this time, the clubs demise in the Football League gathered pace with relegation to the old Division Two and subsequently Division Three. In 1995, Bill Archer agreed a deal to sell the Goldstone Ground to property developers for a figure in the region of £7,000,000. Mr Archer chose not tell the fans of this deal - we instead found out after the details were leaked and exposed in a local newspaper. During this time, it also came to light that Bill Archer had amended the Clubs Articles of Association, removing a clause that decreed that, should the Club ever be sold, no individual could ever profit personally from the sale. Fortunately this was picked up on in time by an Albion fan who is also an accountant, and only after this was also exposed in the local newspaper was the clause hastily reinstated. We were then advised that it's removal had been an "oversight", but I'm sure you could forgive us for being more than a little suspicious as to the true motives of that amendment at the time. Little more than 12 months after we left the Goldstone Ground, that same site was sold on again for approximately £24,000,000.
Having sold the Goldstone Ground to the developers, and made absolutely no provision for an alternative venue where Brighton could play, thanks to Mr Archer we found ourselves homeless, broke, and forced to play our "home" matches 60 miles away at Gillingham. Mr Archer by now had relinquished his controlling interest in the club and handed the sorry mess that had become Brighton and Hove Albion over to the current chairman, Dick Knight. Following a miserable two years in exile at Gillingham, we are now thankfully playing our home matches in Brighton again, abeit at a temporary 7,000 capacity rented athletics track in a local nature reserve. As you are no doubt aware, the Club is now involved in a protracted Public Inquiry to try to win planning permission for a permanent home at Falmer, a process which is further crippling the club financially. This is the legacy left to us by Bill Archer, the same Bill Archer you are inviting sponsorship from for clubs in the Football League.
It is only through the hard work, dedication and determination of Dick Knight, the current board of directors and the supporters of Brighton and Hove Albion that the club has continued to exist since the disastrous Chairmanship of Bill Archer, but we are a long way from assuring the future of the club. We are still trying to repair the damage following the sale of the Goldstone Ground, which we had to leave back in 1997, and the clubs future currently hangs in the balance pending the decision from the Deputy Prime Minister on the application for a stadium at Falmer. Should this be declined, it is difficult to see how the Club could possibly survive given it’s current circumstances.
In light of manner in which Bill Archer controlled, abused and nearly destroyed one of your oldest member clubs, I strongly request this sponsorship deal be cancelled and all links with Bill Archer severed with immediate effect. Any involvement of this man with the Football League is wholly inappropriate and completely unacceptable. As we have found to our cost, businessmen such as Bill Archer have no interest in football other than how much they can make out of it, and to invite Football League sponsorship from this man is something I find deeply offensive.
Yours sincerely,
David Rider
Football fan and supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion
Dear Sir Brian,
I am writing to express my revulsion with regard to the recent £500,000 sponsorship deal which has been agreed between Focus Wickes and the Football League. Having agreed to this deal, I can only presume that you are unaware as to the history of the Focus Wickes chairman Bill Archer. If that is the case, here is a summary of Bill Archer's Chairmanship of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club.
Back in 1993, Bill Archer acquired a controlling interest in Brighton and Hove Albion for the princely sum of £56.25p. During this time, the clubs demise in the Football League gathered pace with relegation to the old Division Two and subsequently Division Three. In 1995, Bill Archer agreed a deal to sell the Goldstone Ground to property developers for a figure in the region of £7,000,000. Mr Archer chose not tell the fans of this deal - we instead found out after the details were leaked and exposed in a local newspaper. During this time, it also came to light that Bill Archer had amended the Clubs Articles of Association, removing a clause that decreed that, should the Club ever be sold, no individual could ever profit personally from the sale. Fortunately this was picked up on in time by an Albion fan who is also an accountant, and only after this was also exposed in the local newspaper was the clause hastily reinstated. We were then advised that it's removal had been an "oversight", but I'm sure you could forgive us for being more than a little suspicious as to the true motives of that amendment at the time. Little more than 12 months after we left the Goldstone Ground, that same site was sold on again for approximately £24,000,000.
Having sold the Goldstone Ground to the developers, and made absolutely no provision for an alternative venue where Brighton could play, thanks to Mr Archer we found ourselves homeless, broke, and forced to play our "home" matches 60 miles away at Gillingham. Mr Archer by now had relinquished his controlling interest in the club and handed the sorry mess that had become Brighton and Hove Albion over to the current chairman, Dick Knight. Following a miserable two years in exile at Gillingham, we are now thankfully playing our home matches in Brighton again, abeit at a temporary 7,000 capacity rented athletics track in a local nature reserve. As you are no doubt aware, the Club is now involved in a protracted Public Inquiry to try to win planning permission for a permanent home at Falmer, a process which is further crippling the club financially. This is the legacy left to us by Bill Archer, the same Bill Archer you are inviting sponsorship from for clubs in the Football League.
It is only through the hard work, dedication and determination of Dick Knight, the current board of directors and the supporters of Brighton and Hove Albion that the club has continued to exist since the disastrous Chairmanship of Bill Archer, but we are a long way from assuring the future of the club. We are still trying to repair the damage following the sale of the Goldstone Ground, which we had to leave back in 1997, and the clubs future currently hangs in the balance pending the decision from the Deputy Prime Minister on the application for a stadium at Falmer. Should this be declined, it is difficult to see how the Club could possibly survive given it’s current circumstances.
In light of manner in which Bill Archer controlled, abused and nearly destroyed one of your oldest member clubs, I strongly request this sponsorship deal be cancelled and all links with Bill Archer severed with immediate effect. Any involvement of this man with the Football League is wholly inappropriate and completely unacceptable. As we have found to our cost, businessmen such as Bill Archer have no interest in football other than how much they can make out of it, and to invite Football League sponsorship from this man is something I find deeply offensive.
Yours sincerely,
David Rider
Football fan and supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion
Last edited:
The Large One
Who's Next?
Easy 10 said:
As Paul Hayward once wrote, 'as a detail, it was about as relevant as the angle which the Titanic went down', but I have read in several places that the figure was £24.6m.
The Large One
Who's Next?
Sorry, other than that, top letter-writing Easy 10 and fatbadger. 
Easy 10
Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Duley editted TLO, cheers squire.
i've just started 2 companies called "don't go to" and "run by a crock" i might advitise at withdean but just need one board in between me thinks
fatbadger
New member
Storer68 said:
Good point! Well spotted. You caught me just before I posted it - it's now changed and on its way.
Kev the Ape
New member
well done dick knight and the board. ARCHER IS SCUM!!!! we dont need his shitty money.
sullyupthewing
New member
If we took the cash we might as well say all is forgiven, and that I will never do.
DK you are a star.
DK you are a star.
Dancin Ninja BHA
Well-known member
- Jul 6, 2003
- 2,260
Harold said:
Agreed
Also, if we are still at Withdean and the Wickes deal is in place, how long are those Wickes advertising boards going to last?!!!
Not that difficult to get into Withdean at the dead of night and have a little bonfire......
PS I'm only talking hypothetically, if the deal does go through, and the Wickes boards do go up in flames I'm not the guilty party, your honour
NMH
Banned
I hope the refusal was relayed with a nasty note.
Ours is a club of honour. F@ck you archer, and your dirty money.
Ours is a club of honour. F@ck you archer, and your dirty money.
Brightonfan1983
Well-known member
sully said:
All this reminds me of the thread a while back, about whether we'd accept money from him if it meant we could have Falmer.
Obscuring it, putting it in the gents, kicking it to bits - merely accepting his money sends out the wrong message to us all - that football can't survive without tossers like Archer.
Sleep with the devil = get f**ked in the arse.
dougdeep
New member
Dick Knight
Last edited:
balloonboy
aka Jim in the West
The words of Paul Hayward, in Build a Bonfire:
Archer took control of a dying company by parting with £56.25 to buy a controlling stake. At the same time the ancient "no profit" clause was removed from the club's constitution, enabling the new directors to gain from the sale of the ground. When the change was spotted by the Evening Argus, the clause was eventually reinstated, with the club's lawyers calling it's removal an oversight.
The club was now controlled by Archer, David Bellotti, and Greg Stanley, who had loaned the club £800,000 at no doubt good rates of interest, but left the running of the club to Archer, his partner in the DIY chain, Focus. What followed was the most acrimonious, life threatening, turbulent and distressing chapter in the history of English football."
I think it pays to re-read that last sentence several times. It's then time to reflect on the fact that the Football League has decided that the man responsible for the most distressing chapter in the history of English football is the right sort of person to do business with.
God it stinks.
Archer took control of a dying company by parting with £56.25 to buy a controlling stake. At the same time the ancient "no profit" clause was removed from the club's constitution, enabling the new directors to gain from the sale of the ground. When the change was spotted by the Evening Argus, the clause was eventually reinstated, with the club's lawyers calling it's removal an oversight.
The club was now controlled by Archer, David Bellotti, and Greg Stanley, who had loaned the club £800,000 at no doubt good rates of interest, but left the running of the club to Archer, his partner in the DIY chain, Focus. What followed was the most acrimonious, life threatening, turbulent and distressing chapter in the history of English football."
I think it pays to re-read that last sentence several times. It's then time to reflect on the fact that the Football League has decided that the man responsible for the most distressing chapter in the history of English football is the right sort of person to do business with.
God it stinks.
Kev the Ape
New member
how can the football league do that, dont they know whate that bastard did to our club.