Brighton and Hove go global · Yellow Fever Nga Wana Kowhai · Supporters of the Wellington Phoenix

I used to live in Brighton when the team won two championships in a row under Mickey Adams, and the talk of the town was about a new staduim at Falmer. But the arseholes at the council wouldnt allow it, as the place sited for the new ground was on Uni land. I think now that they are still playing at the worst staduim in England at the Withdean, and this is a place that I would never go and watch them, as its totally appalling. The club have some very influential fans in Fat Boy Slim and Des Lynham!, and there catchment aera is huge, as there are no other teams in East or West Sussex.

Brightons problems steam from when Liam Brady was manager, and becuse he was on the verge of being a sucess the chairman david Belloti got rid of him, now that may seem strage in getting rid of a manger who was doing great things. but the politics at the club at the time made it impossible for him to continue, and the chairmans only want was to do what he did, and sell the Goldstone to Sainsbury's (which he did). Brighton nearly went out of the league, but avoided this fate, by beating hereford on the lastday of the season.

The city really needs a good team, and I know that there are alot of fans who would go to watch.

The joy that the place showed wit those two consecutive promotions was so cool, and I wish that they would make some good descions about a ground, as the city would benefit from having it.

MAY THE SEAGULL FLY AGAIN SOON.

We do indeed have the worst ground in the league, but it's only temporary. It's my old high school's athletics day facility with a bunch of temporary seating. It's better than we had when the Goldstone was taken away from us - home games 75 miles away in Gillingham. Falmer is coming though. It's three years away. Planning permission took about a decade to secure with lots of appeals and the like to go through. The sight is in limbo - marked in limbo and an area of outstanding natural beauty at the same time. It's AONB status was a joke (delapidated railway station alongside, 6 lane A27 adjacent, run-down uni buildings on it) and it has taken ages to get through the red tape and the NIMBYs, whilst costing the club over a million quid - mostly funded by the sales of Zamora and Virgo. To clarify, the Brighton & Hove councils have been nothing but supportive - Lewes District Council have been a major obstace. 200 yards of the site is over the Lewes boundary and they have been able to wreak havoc on the process as a result.

To clarify what happened. The main villain was Bill Archer. Bellotti was his lap dog. For a long time, Archer hid behind Bellotti and it was some time before the true relationship between them was revealed.

In 1993 - a short while after coming within one game of returning to the Premiership (as it is now called) - Archer bought the club for GBP56.25, when it was days away from being wound up by the Inland Revenue. At the same time, he removed the "no profit" clause from the club's constitution. When the change was spotted by the Argus, and eventually its reinstatement was forced - it's an FA rule for non-PLCs, but they didn't seem to care - Bellotti called it an oversight. When questions were asked about the change in constitution, Bellotti told fans to stop whining and barred from the ground the reporter for asking questions. I'm jumping ahead though....

In 1993, the club was controlled by Archer, Bellotti and Greg Stanley. Stanley was essentially just an investor and he trusted Archer to make his decisions. In July 95, they sold the ground to property developers for GBP7.4m. BTW, the developers sold it on 12 months later, as it was, for GBP23m. Archer was investigated by the Serious Fraud Squad for the disparate values in the transactions, but they were unable to prove the connection between Archer and the developer that made GBP16m by doing nothing except holding ownership for a year.

In the summer of 1995, news broke that we would be ground sharing with Portsmouth from 1996/97, whilst the Goldstone was demolished and a new ground built at Waterhall. The story was a leak and the club had made no announcement.

At this time Bellotti had a good relationship with fan groups, so they asked him about the story and he denied it. A few days later, the local paper discovered that the new stadium plan at Waterhall was fiction, having been denied two years earlier. Waterhall is barred from any development, being within the boundaries of a national park. (One of the reasons why the Falmer process is so frustrating, as opponents to Falmer keep saying go to Waterhall, when Falmer has already been earmarked for development and is by the side of a 6 lane highway, is partly occupied by dilapidated University buildings and hosts a rundown railway station - I digress.)

Paul Samrah, a chartered accountant who wrote for a fanzine, started looking at the accounts and memorandum & articles of association (available from companies house). He saw that things did not add up and started asking questions, particularly about the change in the clause that allowed shareholders to keep the 2 million remaining from the sale of the ground after repaying the club debts. Bellotti banned him from the ground and continued to deny that the ground had been sold!

Eventually, Bellotti could deny it no more and claimed that debts of 6 million were due to be paid by June 96. This conflicted with all previous announcements. Samrah analysed the accounts and determined that total debt was actually 4.7m, of which less than 1m was due to be paid within the next 12 months.

In November 1995, Liam Brady attended a public meeting at Southwick FC and reveals that Bellotti refused to pay for insurance on the team minibus - Brady paid it himself. A few weeks later, Brady resigned. He later said that Archer had told him at the very first meeting to ignore Bellotti - "a nonentity [...] he doesn't mean anything."

Remember that at this point, the fans are completely ignorant that Archer is pulling the strings. Bellotti is the public figure, but it was another 6 months before it was revealed that Archer was using him as a puppet to take the flak.

In December 1995, Bellotti unveiled plans for a new stadium at Toads Hole Valley - also unfeasible and devoid of fact. Opposed by the council, the Highways Agency etc (and also dragged into the Falmer enquiry - sigh). Oh and Bellotti tries to sue a councillor for libel - failed by the way.

By the end of the 1995/96 season we reached our final home gome, with nowhere to play the following season. The League say the will expell the club if we move to Portsmouth with no return plan.

The developers who now owned the ground offered to lease it back for one season. Bellotti refused. The FA intervene. Liam Brady offers to pay the deposit. Bellotti refused. 5 minutes before the deadline - we were that close to being expelled - Bellotti and Archer sign the papers to lease the Goldstone back for the 1996/97 season.

Oh, and we got relegated from Division 2 that season - not that it mattered as on-pitch events were irrelevant compared to our near loss of league status.

By now, Dick Knight has assembled a consortium and started to try and buy the club from these wkrs. They refused to sell and used several delaying and evasive tactics. The FA finally get involved in trying to mediate a sale. It was slowly emerging that Archer was the main player and that Bellotti was merely his pawn. He stated "Bellotti is a defunct voice piece" in a public meeting. Bellotti just sat in the meeting and stared at the floor. A question was specifically put to him and he chose not to answer - Archer turned on him and said "answer the question, it surely isn't too difficult!" It was not until October 1996 that it really sunk in that Archer was the devil and that Bellotti was working for him.

In September 1996, a demo was held outside the Lib Dem conference (Bellotti is a LibDem MP), earning Bellotti a telling off from Paddy Ashdown! The FA's meetings with Archer break down with no outcome. In October 1996 a demonstration is staged outside Archer's home near Wigan.
Fans picket Focus DIY - Archer's business. Fans stage a mass walkout during the second half of the home game against Hereford - only a few hundred stayed. Fulham fans join Brighton fans for a march through the town before their match. Organised resistance and Fans United is now in full swing!

Bellotti enforces an exclusion zone around the Directors' box, so that fans aren't too close to him during games. He increases the size of the zone in November and again in December.

In November, the home game against Mansfield is boycotted - the club's lowest home gate since the war (we bottomed it during our 2 years in exile though with a lowest ever) - but the official attendance of 1933 included season ticket holders and Mansfield ticket holders, who mostly did not go in. Away to Fulham, a march was staged to deliver a petition to the FA.

In December, Bellotti bans Paul Samrah for his role in protests and identifying discrepancies between financial press releases and accounts filed.

In January 97, fans picket the Lib Dem councillor selection meeting in Eastbourne - Bellotti's seat. BISA announce that if Bellotti is selected, they will put up a candidate. Bellotti loses the selection meeting by a significant margin. For the Hull game, a whistle protest is held - all fans are asked to bring a whistle and blow them during the game. The ref's whistle was at a different tone and with everyone blowing their whistle, it became more of a single tone, so the idea of disrupting the game or getting it abandoned didn't work. Curiously, Samrah's ban is lifted. Bellotti agrees to police advice to stay away from games.

In Feb 97, the famous Fans United day was held. Fans from all over Europe descended on to Brighton. It was the idea of a 12 year old Plymouth fan.

By April 1997, after lots of off-on mediation via the FA and CEDR (their mediators), Archer is forced to agree to sell a majority shareholding to Dick Knight. The FA threaten "decisive action" if the deal is not signed.

It still takes until September 1997 for Archer to conclude his end of the legal paperwork. Once the deal went live (3 Sept 97) Bellotti was instantly removed as Chief Executive. (It was another few years before Archer would agree to give up his, now minority, share holding.)

The last ever game at the Goldstone saw Dick Knight sit in the Directors' box for the first time. We beat Doncaster 1-0 and with one game to go climbed off the bottom of the league for the first time in 206 days - sealing safety a week later with a draw in the final game at Hereford.
Steve Gritt achieved a miracle with that rescue, but with everything that was going on, the football itself became less important. HAving said that, the Conference had said we were not eligible for entry with no ground and no alternatives, so had we lost, we would have gone into freefall. The League, as we were already in it when all this happened, at least felt we could have some leeway providing Archer was no longer in charge.

Bellotti infuriated the police, Hereford football club, the FA, the League and the fans by showing up at that final game. All those parties had asked him to stay away. The Hereford stewards tried to talk him out of going in, stating that if Brighton lose and the fans see him, they'll be trouble - probably would have been true.

I've summarised so much and left out loads. In some ways, you could take the view that Bellotti got taken in by Archer and by the time he realised, he was in too deep. Whatever, Bellotti was an accomplice to Archer. Without Bellotti, Archer would have been exposed earlier and pressure could have been brought to him sooner. For an investment of GBP56.25, he bought the club, sold the ground and nearly walked away with almost 2 million profit in his pocket.

I'll tell you what though - going through all that, really strengthens the bonds between you and the club - as we used to sing, "..please don't take my Brighton away.."

The Goldstone is now a shopping area. I have never seen it. After the Doncaster home game, I always detoured to never see where the ground once was. Friends who have seen it tell me it is really upsetting to see what was once our home now be a bunch of shops whilst we're still homeless.

We've got Dick Knight now. He's no billionnaire, but he's got a few million. He got the club back to Brighton and has managed to get us permission for Falmer. The ghost of the Archer & Belloti scum will not be erased until Falmer is built.