Storer68
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and this SHOULD have happened in 1996
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David Bellotti
- Thread starter southcoastred
- Start date
and this SHOULD have happened in 1996
southcoastred
New member
- Thread starter
- #22
I think I may print out this thread and distribute it around our offices in Bath....
Oh while we are on the subject of the dark days.
What was the wording of the clause that got 'forgotten/left out' of our deeds type charter thingy.
I was with a Pompey STH yesterday and I felt he really needed to know what these types are capable of, what with there current situation.
What was the wording of the clause that got 'forgotten/left out' of our deeds type charter thingy.
I was with a Pompey STH yesterday and I felt he really needed to know what these types are capable of, what with there current situation.
Don't forget Greg Stanley.
I hope all three of the bastards live long enough to see us move into Falmer and realise that their collective attempt to murder our club failed more miserably than they could ever have imagined.
I think it's safe to say that the only time any of us here, or any Albion fan for that matter, would be pleased to hear the names of Bill Archer, David Bellotti or Greg Stanley will be on the day when they can be followed with "has died".
countrygull
Active member
The History of the Brighton & Hove Albion Crisis
Like most problems in football, the crisis at Brighton & Hove Albion has its roots in money, but it has long since transcended the mere financial to become a battle for the very soul of the game.
Money problems
The poor financial management of the club in the 1980s and early 1990s gave rise to the first winding-up petition against the club by the Inland Revenue in November 1992, alerting supporters for the first time to the parlous state of the Albion. Only the sale of goalkeeper Mark Beeney to Leeds United the following April averted the threat of closure.
The Board saw salvation in a scheme for retail warehouses on the Goldstone Ground, the club’s home since 1902. The enhanced value of the site would increase borrowing power, fans were told, although no development would take place until a new ground was available. Supporters fought alongside the directors for permission for a scheme they thought would save their football club. The battle was eventually won — but it was to prove a hollow victory.
Takeover
The club’s position was so dire that further winding-up petitions were received in 1993. Two directors, Bill Archer and Greg Stanley, took control amidst the chaos by introducing a new bank loan. The new money paid off the immediate debts and by December 1993 the nightmare in the High Court was finally over. The new regime brought in former Eastbourne M.P. David Bellotti as chief executive and Liam Brady as manager.
All seemed well, with the team starting to turn around under Brady, but then the nightmare returned — and with a vengeance.
Sale of the Goldstone Ground
In July 1995 the local Argus newspaper revealed that Archer, Stanley and Bellotti had done a deal to sell the Goldstone Ground, yet had no acceptable plans to relocate the club to a new stadium. From 1996, it was announced, Albion would play home games at Fratton Park, Portsmouth.
The Goldstone was always a ramshackle ground, and by now it was only a shadow of its former self. But for the club to sell its home with no viable alternative was unforgivable. The Board said it was necessary to clear the debts, but why was there no dialogue with supporters about a restructuring of the club? Why was there no discussion with Brighton and Hove councils?
That action, together with subsequent revelations regarding changes to the club’s constitution and doubts over the timing of debt repayments, convinced fans that they had been betrayed by owners with ulterior motives, and one of the most bitter “wars” in the history of football broke out. The directors dug in and made a hopeless bid for a new stadium and commercial development at Toad’s Hole on the South Downs to the north of Hove.
Civil war
The new owners of the Goldstone Ground were Chartwell Land, a property development company. They offered Albion another season at a cost of £480,000, but the Board rejected it. The final game of the 1995/96 season, against York City, arrived with supporters believing it to be – unnecessarily – the last-ever match on the ground. The result was a mass pitch invasion with the goals wrecked and the game abandoned.
Suddenly there was a great deal of media interest in the situation, and three days later, within an hour of Chartwell’s deadline, the Board announced that it would accept the offer after all.
Rival consortium
On the day following the York City game, Liam Brady, who had felt unable to continue as manager, was introduced as the front man for a takeover consortium. Despite the intervention of the Football Association, the consortium’s approaches were rejected by Archer, the majority shareholder and chairman who had secured control for the sum of just £56.25. A second pitch invasion in October 1996, a direct result of Archer’s televised intransigence, was penalised by the deduction of two points, leaving Albion 11 points adrift at the bottom of the Football League.
The possibility of losing Football League status just 14 years after appearing in the F.A. Cup final was only too real. The vast bulk of the dwindling support felt passionately that their club had to be freed from the unrelenting grip of Archer, Bellotti and Stanley to survive at any level.
Season of protest
Home games in 1996/97 were played amidst a funereal atmosphere with Bellotti, who always attended, and Archer, who never attended, the subject of the most vehement mass protest.
The demonstrations – never violent – were carried across the country in an inspired campaign that included a rally outside Archer’s home in Lancashire; marches through Brighton, Hove and London; and petitions to the F.A. and the Crewe headquarters of Focus, Archer’s DIY company. The boycott of a game against Mansfield Town saw an official attendance of just 1,933 spectators — until demonstrators invaded the East Terrace and West Stand at half time, forcing Bellotti to leave.
In the autumn of 1996, Albion fans took less interest in the form of their team – which was dreadful – than in the protests. Anarchy reigned, and the hated Bellotti was driven out of the Goldstone on several occasions. But an entrenched Board carried on regardless, and when the ground-sharing arrangement with Portsmouth fell through the club agreed a deal instead with Gillingham, even further away.
Fans unite
On 8th February 1997, Albion fans called on supporters of all clubs to stand with them and show their disgust at what was happening. “Fans United” was a unique show of solidarity and an outstanding success (not least because of the 5-0 demolition of relegation rivals Hartlepool United).
Peace breaks out
In the New Year the Football Association, through the initiative of David Davies, introduced the existing Board and the popular rival consortium to professional mediators. Against expectations, they secured an agreement for the future of the club in March 1997 that was announced the following month before the final game at the Goldstone Ground. Both sides had compromised to produce an agreement in which no single person was to have a controlling interest in the club.
Albion finally said goodbye to the Goldstone with a win over Doncaster Rovers, setting up a momentous showdown at Hereford United. The game was drawn 1-1, a result which saved Albion and instead relegated the home side to the Conference (as they had scored fewer goals). It was an incredible escape and an unbelievable finish to an unreal season.
Exile
With the Goldstone demolished for the new retail park, the Football League allowed Albion to share with Gillingham provided £500,000 was lodged as a guarantee that the club would return within three years. The “Seagulls” survived a League motion to expel them and found themselves playing 70 miles away at the Priestfield Stadium.
The deal to restructure the club was finally concluded in September 1997. While Archer retained a shareholding, the new chairman was local advertising mogul Dick Knight who was joined on the Board by his financial advisor Bob Pinnock; Martin Perry of construction giants Alfred McAlpine; and two F.A.-appointed non-executive directors who would resolve any dispute. The new regime brought a welcome breath of fresh air to the club and promised a new, open relationship with supporters. David Bellotti was dismissed as part of the deal, but Archer remained a shareholder until he was finally bought out in May 2002.
Together with Brighton & Hove Council, the new Board looked to bring the club home on a temporary basis while a permanent solution was sought. The search ended at Withdean Stadium, an athletics and county league football arena. Backed by a supporters’ campaign, the plans to transform Withdean into a 6,000-seat stadium suitable for league football met stiff opposition from some locals, but an innovative transportation scheme and a petition of more than 32,000 names allowed the council to pass the plans in June 1998. However, the threat of legal action and contractual problems with the stadium managers meant that construction was largely delayed until February 1999, thereby ruling out a return until the 1999/2000 season.
Life was hard in Gillingham. In 1997/98 the team was even worse than the previous season, but Doncaster Rovers kept Albion off the bottom of the League. “Home” gates, naturally, fell to their lowest ever, an average of just 2,328 as few supporters trekked 70 miles into Kent. On Bonfire Night 1997, just 1,025 fans saw their team lose 3-0 to Barnet.
The club started to lay on a fleet of matchday buses and performances improved in 1998/99, but the club fell away to finish 17th. All that really mattered, though, was that Albion were coming home.
Like most problems in football, the crisis at Brighton & Hove Albion has its roots in money, but it has long since transcended the mere financial to become a battle for the very soul of the game.
Money problems
The poor financial management of the club in the 1980s and early 1990s gave rise to the first winding-up petition against the club by the Inland Revenue in November 1992, alerting supporters for the first time to the parlous state of the Albion. Only the sale of goalkeeper Mark Beeney to Leeds United the following April averted the threat of closure.
The Board saw salvation in a scheme for retail warehouses on the Goldstone Ground, the club’s home since 1902. The enhanced value of the site would increase borrowing power, fans were told, although no development would take place until a new ground was available. Supporters fought alongside the directors for permission for a scheme they thought would save their football club. The battle was eventually won — but it was to prove a hollow victory.
Takeover
The club’s position was so dire that further winding-up petitions were received in 1993. Two directors, Bill Archer and Greg Stanley, took control amidst the chaos by introducing a new bank loan. The new money paid off the immediate debts and by December 1993 the nightmare in the High Court was finally over. The new regime brought in former Eastbourne M.P. David Bellotti as chief executive and Liam Brady as manager.
All seemed well, with the team starting to turn around under Brady, but then the nightmare returned — and with a vengeance.
Sale of the Goldstone Ground
In July 1995 the local Argus newspaper revealed that Archer, Stanley and Bellotti had done a deal to sell the Goldstone Ground, yet had no acceptable plans to relocate the club to a new stadium. From 1996, it was announced, Albion would play home games at Fratton Park, Portsmouth.
The Goldstone was always a ramshackle ground, and by now it was only a shadow of its former self. But for the club to sell its home with no viable alternative was unforgivable. The Board said it was necessary to clear the debts, but why was there no dialogue with supporters about a restructuring of the club? Why was there no discussion with Brighton and Hove councils?
That action, together with subsequent revelations regarding changes to the club’s constitution and doubts over the timing of debt repayments, convinced fans that they had been betrayed by owners with ulterior motives, and one of the most bitter “wars” in the history of football broke out. The directors dug in and made a hopeless bid for a new stadium and commercial development at Toad’s Hole on the South Downs to the north of Hove.
Civil war
The new owners of the Goldstone Ground were Chartwell Land, a property development company. They offered Albion another season at a cost of £480,000, but the Board rejected it. The final game of the 1995/96 season, against York City, arrived with supporters believing it to be – unnecessarily – the last-ever match on the ground. The result was a mass pitch invasion with the goals wrecked and the game abandoned.
Suddenly there was a great deal of media interest in the situation, and three days later, within an hour of Chartwell’s deadline, the Board announced that it would accept the offer after all.
Rival consortium
On the day following the York City game, Liam Brady, who had felt unable to continue as manager, was introduced as the front man for a takeover consortium. Despite the intervention of the Football Association, the consortium’s approaches were rejected by Archer, the majority shareholder and chairman who had secured control for the sum of just £56.25. A second pitch invasion in October 1996, a direct result of Archer’s televised intransigence, was penalised by the deduction of two points, leaving Albion 11 points adrift at the bottom of the Football League.
The possibility of losing Football League status just 14 years after appearing in the F.A. Cup final was only too real. The vast bulk of the dwindling support felt passionately that their club had to be freed from the unrelenting grip of Archer, Bellotti and Stanley to survive at any level.
Season of protest
Home games in 1996/97 were played amidst a funereal atmosphere with Bellotti, who always attended, and Archer, who never attended, the subject of the most vehement mass protest.
The demonstrations – never violent – were carried across the country in an inspired campaign that included a rally outside Archer’s home in Lancashire; marches through Brighton, Hove and London; and petitions to the F.A. and the Crewe headquarters of Focus, Archer’s DIY company. The boycott of a game against Mansfield Town saw an official attendance of just 1,933 spectators — until demonstrators invaded the East Terrace and West Stand at half time, forcing Bellotti to leave.
In the autumn of 1996, Albion fans took less interest in the form of their team – which was dreadful – than in the protests. Anarchy reigned, and the hated Bellotti was driven out of the Goldstone on several occasions. But an entrenched Board carried on regardless, and when the ground-sharing arrangement with Portsmouth fell through the club agreed a deal instead with Gillingham, even further away.
Fans unite
On 8th February 1997, Albion fans called on supporters of all clubs to stand with them and show their disgust at what was happening. “Fans United” was a unique show of solidarity and an outstanding success (not least because of the 5-0 demolition of relegation rivals Hartlepool United).
Peace breaks out
In the New Year the Football Association, through the initiative of David Davies, introduced the existing Board and the popular rival consortium to professional mediators. Against expectations, they secured an agreement for the future of the club in March 1997 that was announced the following month before the final game at the Goldstone Ground. Both sides had compromised to produce an agreement in which no single person was to have a controlling interest in the club.
Albion finally said goodbye to the Goldstone with a win over Doncaster Rovers, setting up a momentous showdown at Hereford United. The game was drawn 1-1, a result which saved Albion and instead relegated the home side to the Conference (as they had scored fewer goals). It was an incredible escape and an unbelievable finish to an unreal season.
Exile
With the Goldstone demolished for the new retail park, the Football League allowed Albion to share with Gillingham provided £500,000 was lodged as a guarantee that the club would return within three years. The “Seagulls” survived a League motion to expel them and found themselves playing 70 miles away at the Priestfield Stadium.
The deal to restructure the club was finally concluded in September 1997. While Archer retained a shareholding, the new chairman was local advertising mogul Dick Knight who was joined on the Board by his financial advisor Bob Pinnock; Martin Perry of construction giants Alfred McAlpine; and two F.A.-appointed non-executive directors who would resolve any dispute. The new regime brought a welcome breath of fresh air to the club and promised a new, open relationship with supporters. David Bellotti was dismissed as part of the deal, but Archer remained a shareholder until he was finally bought out in May 2002.
Together with Brighton & Hove Council, the new Board looked to bring the club home on a temporary basis while a permanent solution was sought. The search ended at Withdean Stadium, an athletics and county league football arena. Backed by a supporters’ campaign, the plans to transform Withdean into a 6,000-seat stadium suitable for league football met stiff opposition from some locals, but an innovative transportation scheme and a petition of more than 32,000 names allowed the council to pass the plans in June 1998. However, the threat of legal action and contractual problems with the stadium managers meant that construction was largely delayed until February 1999, thereby ruling out a return until the 1999/2000 season.
Life was hard in Gillingham. In 1997/98 the team was even worse than the previous season, but Doncaster Rovers kept Albion off the bottom of the League. “Home” gates, naturally, fell to their lowest ever, an average of just 2,328 as few supporters trekked 70 miles into Kent. On Bonfire Night 1997, just 1,025 fans saw their team lose 3-0 to Barnet.
The club started to lay on a fleet of matchday buses and performances improved in 1998/99, but the club fell away to finish 17th. All that really mattered, though, was that Albion were coming home.
severnside gull
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,640
You can take the man out of Brighton 
Withdean Wanderer
Banned
Bellotti, basically helped raped this club.
Dickhead.
Dickhead.
seagullsovergrimsby
#cpfctinpotclub
In the top 10 of Brighton's Most Hated , which could be made into a Channel 4 programme.
Build a bonfire
Build a bonfire
Put Bill Archer on the top
Put Bellotti in the middle
And we'll burn the fuckin lot.
Build a bonfire
Build a bonfire
Put Bill Archer on the top
Put Bellotti in the middle
And we'll burn the fuckin lot.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,640
Common as Mook
Not Posh as Fook
- Jul 26, 2004
- 5,642
Fans United. We'll never be defeated.
Shout that at him next time you see him.
Shout that at him next time you see him.
bristolseagull
Well-known member
and this SHOULD have happened in 1996
that f***ing face makes me want to puke
Man of Harveys
Well-known member
Go to Amsterdam. Walk through the red light district. You'll see some really filthy, dirty, fat, ugly prostitututes sitting in the windows: poor creatures, desperate for any semblance of dignity but reduced to performing acts of hideous self-abasement, simply to eke out a living.
But anything that that runty Lib Dem bespectacled scumbag whore did on Bill Archer's behalf in the mid-90s would make any one of those ladies seem like the secretary-general of the UN. And he did all his dirty work with a sneering smile on his face that can only have emenated from the purest form of sadism. Scum beyond description.
But anything that that runty Lib Dem bespectacled scumbag whore did on Bill Archer's behalf in the mid-90s would make any one of those ladies seem like the secretary-general of the UN. And he did all his dirty work with a sneering smile on his face that can only have emenated from the purest form of sadism. Scum beyond description.
LABHA
New member
What an A1 **** he is.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,640
A former Liberal Democrat MP, Bellotti won his seat in parliament on the back of the murder of the incumbent Conservative member, Ian Gow (who was blown up in his car by the IRA).
Bellotti seemed happy enough though:
Bellotti seemed happy enough though: