'Albion reject Archer £60,000'

[balloonboy]

Heartening to read (most of) the comments above. I wholeheartedly agree with MoH.....it is a scandalous decision by the Football League to accept this money. First the MK Dons, now this. Is there no one running football with any morals?

We should raise this issue urgently. I'm penning a little note to Brian Mawhinney at the moment. What I can't understand is that they must have been negotiating this for ages, they must have done significant research on Wickes, and they MUST know that Wickes is owned by Bill Archer. What on earth does that say about the powers that be at the Football League?

 

[Harold]

I think the Albion commercial dept should actively court the attention of Wickes nearest competitor (whoever they may be) and offer them the chance of a combative advertising opportunity (i.e. ad board, corporate tix). The offer should be pitched as the chance to sponsor the only league club not to have Wickes advertising (and of course extol the reasons why far and wide to anyone else who will listen).

 

[Spiros]

Doesn't it just make you sick .....

ENTREPRENEUR Bill Archer is likely to create a 'do-it-yourself ' fortune of around £300m by floating home improvement group Focus Wickes on the stock market. The listing is expected to value the group at around £1.4bn.

Archer, the founder and chairman, holds a 20% stake. Geoff Wilson, the finance director, is also in line for a big windfall*. He is the second-biggest individual investor after Archer.

Duke Street Capital, the biggest shareholder, owns 55% of the company. Its investment is likely to be worth more than £700m.

Archer, a former chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion football club, has earned a reputation as one of the most aggressive players in the industry. He moved into the DIY business 14 years ago with a chain called Choice. His string of takeovers include the Do-It-All chain from Boots, the £289m acquisition of Wickes and the purchase of Great Mills.

I, for one, will be buying shares. I don't shop at Wickes, Focus or any other of those places but I DO like to go to the occasional shareholders AGM. If enough Albion fans are shareholders that could make these meetings very interesting.

 

[Harold]

Interesting I remember years back that his advisors told him to suspend his Focus Wickes company flotation plans due to the likelihood of his shady past with us coming to light and being used against him. It was the fear of all the bad press during the flotation campaign (and happiness by us to spread stories of the man I presume) that led to him settling his links/holding with the club (scaling down his holding value from £1.4M to nearly half).

Be nice if we could be a thorn in his side again somehow, maybe by publicising the football authorities hypocrisy in dealing commercially with this man.

 

[Dave the OAP]

If it was me I would have taken the money.

Lets face it, if an advertising board proclaiming Wicks or any other theiving company of Archer's appeared at the Withdean, we would just deface it...however we would have another 60k in the bank account to pay for falmer

Cough up ARCHER

 

[fatbadger]

I'm penning a little note to Brian Mawhinney at the moment.

Good move - we should all do the same.

 

[London Irish]

Great decision by the board. They would have had to have spent £600,000 on riot police to protect that advertising board for 3 years

 

[WATF0RD ZERO]

We have a public appeal for 2.5million yet turn down an unbudgeted easy 60k , doesn't matter who it comes from and how many people are going to say why should I dig deep when the club are going to turn down revenue like this ?
What if Archer in a fit of conscience suddenly wanted to give us a no strings 2million ? Would Dick Tight turn that down too ?
It's ok having a moral high ground but when we are crippled with debts it is lunacy to turn down any kind of cash injection

If i had any doubts ernest has laid them to rest with his confirmation of why Dick is the best chairman in the country and ernest is a twat

 

[balloonboy]

From memory, Paul Hayward (Daily Telegraph chief sports writer, I think) wrote the forward to that excellent book "Build a Bonfire" which chronicled the anti-Bellotti/Archer struggle. Could anyone maybe contact Paul and see if he'd like to write a piece on this? Alternatively, David Conn of the Independent is an excellent investigative sports writer, and may wish to follow this up. I think there's some worthwhile pro-Albion and Anti-Archer publicity to be had here.

 

[saltash seagull]

an absolute disgrace that the football league have dealt with that

well done dick and co we don't want his money

 

[Lord Bracknell]

From the official website

Albion Reject £60,000 Windfall

By Tim Dudding

Albion have turned down a deal from the Football League to have Wickes Home Improvement as a sponsorship partner, as the company is headed by former chairman Bill Archer.

The deal, which would be worth £20,000 a year over the next three years, has been rejected by the club despite the launch last week of the Alive & Kicking campaign to raise much needed funds.

Albion chairman Dick Knight told the Argus, "It was not a difficult decision for us to turn down this money, even when the club is strapped for cash and we are, at this very moment, asking fans for their help.

"Despite our plight we do not feel it is appropriate to become associated with a company run by someone who supporters hold responsible for the position we are now in."

The £2m the club are aiming to achieve is to cover the deficit accumulated since Albion were left homeless by the sale of the Goldstone, and includes a £700,000 pay-off to Archer.

 

[Caveman]

Archer, go yourself.

 

[Lush]

All just goes to show that beggars CAN be choosers.

Well done Dick and the board.

 

[Easy 10]

All just goes to show that beggars CAN be choosers.

Well done Dick and the board.

I like what you've done there. Good work.

 

[Superseagull]

So we paid Archer £700,000 to get rid of him from the club and then he pays £500,000 to get his company name in all the grounds round the country. Maybe BHAFC should write to all the clubs invovled in this deal and let them know how much it cost to pay him off and what he did to the club. Maybe some clubs would like to return the money they are getting as part of this deal back to BHAFC where some would say it was taken from in the first place. It would be great if every club did it as part of the "alive and kicking" appeal. Imagine Archers reaction!

 

[Caveman]

So we paid Archer £700,000 to get rid of him from the club and then he pays £500,000 to get his company name in all the grounds round the country. Maybe BHAFC should write to all the clubs invovled in this deal and let them know how much it cost to pay him off and what he did to the club. Maybe some clubs would like to return the money they are getting as part of this deal back to BHAFC where some would say it was taken from in the first place. It would be great if every club did it as part of the "alive and kicking" appeal. Imagine Archers reaction!

That would be nice, but it wouldn't happen.

 

[fatbadger]

Sir Brian Mawhinney
Chairman
The Football League
11 Connaught Place
London
W2 2ET

21 September 2004


Dear Sir Mawhinney

I have just found out today that the Football League has accepted money from the Focus Wickes group as a sponsorship partner.

I am writing to express my disgust at the decision. Surely someone at the Football League is aware of the activities of Focus Wickes’s Chairman during his previous involvement in football? If so, I would have hoped that the League was principled enough to have turned down this money. If not, then somebody should have done their homework.

Bill Archer bought a football league club, Brighton & Hove Albion, with the sole intention of asset-stripping it to line his own pocket, without any concern whatsoever for the fans of that club or for the historic principles of the football community. He did so at least in part by breaking certain rules laid down by the football authorities. Even after he was forced out following a very successful campaign on the part of the club’s fans, who were able to draw on the support of the entire football community, he flexed his muscles to force a pay-off from the very club he had impoverished.

Bill Archer is not the kind of man who should be welcomed as a ‘partner’ by the Football League. He has shown by his actions that he has no respect for football’s traditions and no respect for football’s authorities. I believe the League should reconsider its decision to do business with this man.

Yours Faithfully

 

[Biscuit]

Well written that man!

Im personally very pleased with Knights decision to send Archer packing.

 

[Beach Hut]

A very wise and thought out decision.

Go swing for it Archer

 

[Brixtaan]

Excellent fatbadger,I might change the wording and send something similar myself.

Much more should be made of this,nationally.