Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
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Template:Football club infobox Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. are an English football team based in Brighton. They are currently playing in the Football League Championship. The team are also known as 'the Seagulls' as a result of their seaside location. The team play in blue and white stripes.
Founded in 1900, Brighton were a founder member of the Southern League. They were elected to the Football League in 1920. Between 1979 and 1983 they were in the old First Division. In 1983 they reached the final of the FA Cup, which they lost 4-0 to Manchester United after replay. They were relegated from the First Division in the same season.
For many years they were based at the Goldstone Ground in Hove, until financial concerns drove them to sell their ground. For two years from 1997-99 they shared grounds with Gillingham, but have since returned to Brighton, where they now play at the Withdean Stadium. This is not predominantly a football ground, having been used for athletics throughout most of its history, and the club is trying to win planning permission for a new stadium outside Brighton. They recently received partial approval for their plans to build their stadium at Falmer but have to prove the absence of any alternative suitable location before the final go-ahead is given by central government.
The sale of Goldstone, implemented by majority shareholder Bill Archer and his chief executive David Bellotti, proved controversial, and the move provoked widespread protests against the board.
In their last season at Goldstone, 1996-97, the Seagulls were in danger of relegation from the Football League. They won their final game at Goldstone over Doncaster Rovers, setting up a winner-take-all relegation game at Hereford United, who were level on points with the Seagulls. The Seagulls drew 1-1, and Hereford was consigned to the Football Conference on goals scored.
The Seagulls stayed in the Third Division until winning the division in 2001. The following season, they won the Second Division, becoming only the seventh club in the history of the Football League to win successive championships in different divisions. The Seagulls, however, could not repeat their success in the First Division, and were relegated at the end of the 2003 season. They won promotion to the League Championship as the 2004 Second Division playoff winners.
Famous Supporters include: Fatboy Slim, who owns a minority stake in the club, and whose record label Skint Records sponsors the club; comedian Norman Wisdom who was once a director of the club and wrote new words for the club's song "Sussex by the Sea" (which was composed by William Ward-Higgs in 1907); Jon Snow, Channel 4 news anchor, and Desmond Lynam, a leading British television sports presenter.
Due to the cost of the public enquiry, rent on the Withdean Stadium, fees paid to use Gillingham's Priestfield Stadium, and a general running deficit due to the low ticket sales inherent with a small ground, the club had an accumulated deficit of £9.5 Million as of 2004. The Board of Directors are picking up £7 Million of this, and the other £2.5 Million must be raised from the operations of the club. In an effort to achieve this, a fundraising appeal known as the Alive and Kicking Fund has been started, with everything from nude Christmas Cards featuring the players to a CD single being released to raise cash. On 9th January this fundraising single 'Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)' went straight in at number 17 in the UK chart, gaining it national airplay on BBC Radio 1.
Unlike most clubs carrying a large debt, the club has never considered entering administration, as it was a previous period of administration that led to Archer gaining control of the club.
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C since 1979
Brighton won promotion to the First Division in 1979; it was the first time the club had reached the highest level of the English game. They remained at this level for four seasons until finally dropping back down to the Second Division at the end of the 1982-83 season under the management of Jimmy Melia. In that relegation season they had held Manchester United to a 2-2 draw in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium before being hammered 4-0 in the replay a few days later. By 1987-88 Brighton had slipped into the Third Division but were promoted back at the first attempt thanks to the efforts of new manager Barry Lloyd. In 1990-91 Brighton looked as though they might make a return to top division football. They were in contention for at least a playoff place all season long and finished sixth in the final Second Division table, but lost to Notts County in the promotion playoffs. They finished second from bottom in the 1991-92 Second Division campaign and for the 1992-93 season they would be playing in the new Football League Division Two.
The club's debts rose to such an extent that in the spring of 1996 the board of directors decided to sell the Goldstone Ground and move into a temporary home - limited financial resources made immediate relocation impossible. Brighton suffered relegation from Division Two at the end of the 1995-96 season and manager Jimmy Case was sacked the following November after a terrible start to the 1996-97 Division Three campaign. He was replaced by Steve Gritt, who from 1991 and 1995 had been joint manager of Charlton Athletic alongside Alan Curbishley.
Brighton went into 1997 10 points adrift of safety and Gritt's task was looking uphill, not helped by a 2-point deduction imposed by the Football League after fans had staged a pitch invasion early in the season as part of a protest against the sale of the Goldstone Ground.
On the final day of the 1996-97 season, Brighton played their nearest relegation rivals Hereford United away - a draw would prevent Brighton from suffering the humiliation of being relegated to the Conference, just seven seasons after narrowly missing out on top division football. Brighton defender Kerry Mayo scored an own goal which put Hereford in front and looked to have condemned Brighton to relegation. But just minutes from time, Brighton striker Robbie Rienelt scored an equaliser which secured the club's league survival and brought an end to Hereford's 25-year league career.
In 1997-98 and 1998-99, Brighton played some 60 miles away from their hometown in a ground-share with Gillingham at the Priestfield Stadium. But since August 1999 they have played back in Brighton at the Withdean Athletics Stadium which is rented off the local council. In 1999 plans were drawn up for a new stadium at Falmer but these have yet to materialise.
Brighton finally climbed out of the Football League's basement division at the end of the 2000-01 season as Division Three champions under the stewardship of Micky Adams. Adams left the following October to become assistant manager of Leicester City. He was ironically replaced by Peter Taylor, the former Leicester manager, who agreed to take charge of Brighton until the end of the season. He guided Brighton to the 2001-02 Division Two championship but decided against renewing his contract because he was frustrated at the club's lack of financial resources and slow progress in trying to develop a new stadium. Youth team manager Martin Hinshelwood took over as manager but was promoted to the club's board in October 2002 following a disastrous start to the season which had seen one win and ten defeats from Brighton's first eleven Division One games. Former Crystal Palace manager Steve Coppell was drafted in and boosted the club's playing fortunes dramatically. Although the great escape eventually proved beyond Brighton, Coppell and his players gained some satisfaction by staying alive right up to the very last game of the season.
Coppell moved to Reading in October 2003 and was replaced by Mark McGhee, who had achieved Division Two promotion success with Reading in 1994 and Millwall in 2001 - both times as champions. McGhee achieved promotion with Brighton at the first time of asking by guiding them to victory over Bristol City in the 2003-04 Division Two playoff final, booking them a place in the newly-named Coca-Cola Football League Championship for the 2004-05 season. Albion finished 20th out of 24 clubs in the 2004-2005 season, narrowly avoiding the drop by a single point, but achieving their highest league position for 14 years.
Current first team squad
As of May 1st, 2004
Michel Kuipers
Paul Watson- Kerry Mayo
Joe Dolan (on loan from Millwall F.C.)
Alexis Nicolas- Leon Knight
- Gary Hart
- Charlie Oatway
- Richard Carpenter
- Guy Butters
Nathan Jones
Paul Reid- Missing image
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Italian
Maheta Molango - Albert Jarrett (on loan to Stevenage Borough)
Adam Virgo
Rami Shaaban- Chris McPhee
- Dean Hammond
- Alan Blayney (on loan from Southampton F.C.)
- Adam Hinshelwood
- Mark McCammon
- Daniel Harding
- Adam El-Abd
- Jake Robinson
- Dean Cox
- Chris May
- Joel Lynch
External link
- Official club website (http://www.seagulls.co.uk/)
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Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
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| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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