“The 2023-24 football season is now in full swing and every Bees fan is eagerly following the Bees playing in the Premier League at the modern and intimately atmospheric GTech Community Stadium in Lionel Road, Brentford.”
If you had shown that statement to Bees Fans, including myself, in September 2001 we would have looked in disbelief and thought you were bonkers! Adding that Bees had finished in the top ten and beaten European Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble winners home and away in the previous season would have been firmly in the realms of fantasy!
The start of the 2001-2002 season was a very different experience.
On Saturday 22nd September 2001, I was one of about 40 Brentford fans gathered in the Princess Royal, one of the legendary pubs on every corner of Griffin Park, before the home game against Oldham. (We drew 2-2, goals from Lloyd Owusu and Terry Evans). We were there for the inaugural Annual General Meeting of what was formally called the Brentford Football Community Society Ltd, but everybody knew as Bees United. It had been launched the previous April at a public meeting of around 200 fans.
The autumn of 2001 was a turbulent time in the history of Brentford Football Club, then in the third tier of English football.
Bees fans were increasingly frustrated by the perilous direction the Club was taking. The ‘No to Woking’ campaign, formed to resist owner Ron Noades’s plan to move west, had morphed into ‘Save Brentford FC’ and was planning a march on the Saturday following the AGM, a survey of fans showed a majority wanted to move to a new stadium but one in the Brentford area. The marchers protested about the indifference of Hounslow Council to the Club’s plight.
They went on to set up a political party (ABeeC), and Luke Kirton won a seat on the Council in the May 2002 local authority election.
Fans at other clubs were also disillusioned about the state of the game. Following recommendations from a Government Football Task Force, Supporters Direct was set up in 2000 as a national umbrella body for a supporters’ trust movement.
BIAS, led by Chairman, John McGlashan, decided to set up a supporters’ trust in 2001 and Bees United was launched and became an early member of Supporters Direct (now the Football Supporters Association). McGlashan said “Time has now come for us to move forward. The prospect of a new stadium means an opportunity for a new start. The Trust will raise funds and become an important stakeholder in Brentford FC”
As the Club’s owner, Ron Noades, became increasingly disinterested in running the Club (at one point he had been owner, chairman and first team manager!) he agreed to let Bees United have a seat on the Brentford FC Board, which was taken up by Chairman John McGlashan in summer 2002.
From that time until this day the Chair of Bees United has maintained a seat on the Club Board, giving all of you, Bees United members, a say in the strategic management of the Club.
Bees United’s negotiations with Noades led, in April 2003, to Noades standing down from the Brentford FC Board and Bees United Board members Stephen Callen and Andrew Wainwright joined John McGlashan as Directors on that Club Board.
This was soon followed in May 2003 by Noades granting Bees United a conditional two-year Option giving the Trust the right to buy his majority 60% shareholding in the Club.
By this time under Noades management the Club had run up an overdraft at Barclays Bank of over £4million. Under this arrangement Barclays Bank lent money to the Club on the basis that the overdraft was guaranteed by Ron Noades via his company, Altonwood.
The Option was to buy Altonwood’s shareholdings in two companies, Brentford FC Ltd (BFC) and Griffin Park Stadium Ltd (GPSL) for £1 each on condition that Altonwood was relieved of its obligation to provide a guarantee to the bank. In addition to finding the £2 for the shares this gave Bees United two years to re-finance the Club’s overdraft, which crept up to almost £5million.
Although Noades still owned the Club, John McGlashan and Stephen Callen became executive directors running the day-to-day management whilst the Bees United Board focused on working with BIAS and an army of volunteers to raise the necessary funds. A future newsletter article will tell the tale of these legendary fundraising efforts, which kept the Club afloat and helped to fund the supporters’ takeover of the Club.
One of the final pieces in the jig-saw was when Matthew Benham approached the Club to see if he could help and met the then Bees United chair in November 2005. As a result it was agreed that Matthew would contribute a £500,000 interest free loan and a further £500,000 standby facility and would have an independent seat on the BFC Board.
History must also record the safeguarding role of Martin Lange a previous owner and chairman of the Club. In 2002 he and John McGlashan were the only two BFC Board members to vote against Ron Noades proposal to sell Griffin Park to developers for housing. Fortunately, despite the Board’s majority decision to sell, Martin Lange was able to veto any sale because he had retained a ‘Special Share’ in the Club (often referred to as a ‘Golden Share’). As the ownership passed from Ron Noades to Bees United and then, 6 years later, on to Matthew Benham, Bees United ensured by careful negotiations that a form of the Special Share passed to Bees United and remains to this day to give Bees United the ability, under defined circumstances, to block the sale of the Club’s stadium.
From the day that Bees United completed the takeover of the Club on 20th January 2006, and throughout the time that Bees United owned the Club, Matthew had one of his senior staff as his representative on the Brentford FC Board and since 2012 for all the time that Matthew has owned the Club the Bees United chair has been a member of the Club Board.
John McGlashan was followed by Brian Burgess, David Merritt, Stewart Purvis and now Stuart Hatcher; all maintaining a continuous Bees United presence as the Club has been turned around from the days of despair to the current sunlit uplands of the Premier League and new stadium.
This is a collaborative model that has worked well for Brentford and has been recognised nationally as a role model that other Clubs should consider. The recent report by Tracy Crouch MP, followed up by the Government White Paper on governance in football mentioned the Brentford/Bees United arrangement as a shining example of good governance.
Editor’s note
Brian Burgess BEM, a Chiswickian by birth, is a name familiar to many Bees Fans. Brian has been a BU member since day one in 2001 and had been in touch with the then Board all the while, whilst working away from the area. His experience in engineering and construction management found natural synergy with the developing idea for a new stadium at Lionel Road and Brian was elected to the BU Board in November 2002. When John McGlashan took on the Club, MD role in April 2003, Brian was a natural replacement to Chair the BU Board. Brian was then a key member of the BU Board between 2002 and 2007 and a member of the BFC Board from, January 27 2006, seven days after BU acquired the ownership of the Club, to November 28 2007. As well as serving on the two, BU and BFC, Boards, Brian was one of the founder trustees of the newly formed Brentford Community Sports (independent charitable) Trust set up in 2005 and was later elected to the board of Supporters Direct , 19 November 2009.
Brian is a founder Trustee on the BFC Charity, BFC CST
Brian was awarded the BEM in the Queens Honours list in November 2022. The well-deserved award of the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list was for his service to football. Medals of this nature are awarded (UKGOV) ” for a ‘hands-on’ service to the local community. This could be a long-term charitable or voluntary activity, or innovative work of a relatively short duration (3 to 4 years) that has made a significant difference”.
Brian’s most recent challenge was the successful (if weary) completion of his fundraisng cycle ride from John O Groats to Lands End.
Brian’s ride was in support of the Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of his wife Sylvia who died of MND in 2020.
Brian’s challenge has raised 97% of his £25,000 target and Brian’s Just Giving page is still open
Brian has often featured in articles we’ve published in our Newsletter – here are some examples but just search “Brian Burgess”!
The Life of Brian – Congratulations to Brian Burgess BEM
Brian Burgess to write for special BU Book
And for those of you who remember Southampton – February, 2005 …
Lessons to be learnt from ticket fiasco
