Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

Brighton & Hove Albion

Full name	Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Seagulls The Albion
Founded	1901
Ground	Withdean Stadium, Brighton (Capacity: 8,850)
Chairman	Tony Bloom
Manager	Gus Poyet
League	League One
2009–10	League One, 13th
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (pronounced /ˈbraɪtən ˈhoʊv ˈælbiən/), commonly referred to as Brighton, are an English professional association football club based in the coastal city of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex. They have played in Football League One, the third tier of the English football league system, since their relegation from the Championship in 2006. They are currently the only club from Sussex in the Football League.

The team are nicknamed 'Seagulls', due to the city's seaside location. The team have historically played in blue and white stripes, though this changed to all white briefly in the 1970s (in the Freddie Goodwin era) and again to plain blue during the club's most successful spell in the 1980s.

Founded in 1901, Brighton played their early professional football in the Southern League before being elected to the Football League in 1920. The club enjoyed greatest prominence between 1979 and 1983 when they played in the First Division and reached the final of the FA Cup in 1983, losing to Manchester United in a replay. They were relegated from the top division in the same season. Mismanagement brought Brighton close to relegation from the Football League to the Conference which they narrowly avoided in 1997 and 1998 . A boardroom takeover saved Brighton from liquidation and following successive promotions they reached the second tier of English football in 2002.

History

Stadium

For many years Brighton and Hove Albion were based at the Goldstone Ground in Hove, until the board of directors decided to sell the stadium. For two years, from 1997–99, the club shared the ground of Gillingham, but have since returned to Brighton, where they now play at Withdean Stadium. This is not predominantly a football ground, having been used for athletics throughout most of its history, and previously as a zoo.

The sale of the Goldstone Ground, implemented by majority shareholder Bill Archer and his chief executive David Bellotti, proved controversial, and the move provoked widespread protests against the board. The club received little if any money from this sale.

In their last season at the Goldstone, 1996-97, the Seagulls were in danger of relegation from the Football League. They won their final game at the Goldstone against Doncaster Rovers, setting up a winner-takes-all relegation game at Hereford United, who were level on points with the Seagulls. The Seagulls drew 1–1, and Hereford were relegated to the Football Conference on goals scored.

Because of the cost of the public enquiry, rent on 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 in 2004. The board of directors paid £7 million of this; the other £2.5 million had to be raised from the operations of the club. In an effort to achieve this, a fundraising appeal known as the Alive and Kicking Fund was started, with everything from nude Christmas Cards featuring the players to a CD single being released to raise cash. On 9 January 2005 this fundraising single 'Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)' went straight in at number 17 in the UK chart, gaining it national airplay on Radio 1.

On 28 October 2005, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the application for Falmer had been successful, much to the joy and relief of all the fans. However, Lewes District Council contested John Prescott's decision to approve planning permission for Falmer forcing a judicial review. This was based on a minor error in Prescott's original approval which neglected to state that some car parking for the stadium is in the Lewes district as opposed to the Brighton & Hove unitary authority. This caused further delay. Once the judicial review ruled in favour of the stadium, Lewes District Council said that they would not launch further appeals.

Building of the 22,500 seater Falmer Stadium started in December 2008. It is expected to be finished by May 2011 ready for the 2011-2012 season.

Managers

See Soccerbase for full managerial history

Players

Current squad

As of 30 August 2010.^[1]

No.	Name	Nationality	Position	Date Of Birth (Age)	Previous Club	Notes
Goalkeepers
1	Peter Brezovan		GK	9 December 1979 (1979-12-09) (age 31)	Swindon Town
13	Mitch Walker		GK	24 September 1991 (1991-09-24) (age 19)	Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
16	Casper Ankergren		GK	9 November 1979 (1979-11-09) (age 31)	Leeds United
19	Michael Poke		GK	21 November 1985 (1985-11-21) (age 25)	Southampton
Defenders
2	Andy Whing		RB	20 September 1984 (1984-09-20) (age 26)	Coventry City
3	Gordon Greer		CB	14 December 1980 (1980-12-14) (age 30)	Swindon Town	Club captain
4	Tommy Elphick		CB	7 September 1987 (1987-09-07) (age 23)	Youth team graduate
6	Adam El-Abd		CB	11 September 1984 (1984-09-11) (age 26)	Youth team graduate
14	Iñigo Calderón		RB	4 January 1982 (1982-01-04) (age 29)	Deportivo Alaves
22	Marcos Painter		LB	17 August 1986 (1986-08-17) (age 24)	Swansea City
30	Steve Cook		CB/RB	19 April 1991 (1991-04-19) (age 19)	Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
32	James Tunnicliffe		CB	17 January 1989 (1989-01-17) (age 22)	Stockport County	on loan at Bristol Rovers
33	Jim McNulty		LB	13 February 1985 (1985-02-13) (age 26)	Stockport County	on loan at Scunthorpe United
37	Lewis Dunk		CB	21 November 1991 (1991-11-21) (age 19)	Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
-	Grant Hall		CB	29 October 1991 (1991-10-29) (age 19)	Lewes	Involved in club "development squad"
-	James Smith		LB		Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
Midfielders
5	Agustin Battipiedi		CM	1 September 1990 (1990-09-01) (age 20)	Club Comunicaciones
7	Elliott Bennett		RM	18 December 1988 (1988-12-18) (age 22)	Wolves
8	Alan Navarro		CM	31 May 1981 (1981-05-31) (age 29)	MK Dons
10	Matt Sparrow		CM	3 October 1981 (1981-10-03) (age 29)	Scunthorpe United
11	Cristian Baz		LM/FW	5 May 1987 (1987-05-05) (age 23)	Club Comunicaciones
15	Gary Hart		RM/FW	21 September 1976 (1976-09-21) (age 34)	Stansted
18	Gary Dicker		CM	31 July 1986 (1986-07-31) (age 24)	Stockport County
24	Jamie Smith		CM	12 September 1989 (1989-09-12) (age 21)	Crystal Palace
25	Radostin Kishishev		CM	30 July 1974 (1974-07-30) (age 36)	Litex Lovech
26	Liam Bridcutt		CM	8 May 1989 (1989-05-08) (age 21)	Chelsea
28	Jake Caskey		CM	25 April 1994 (1994-04-25) (age 16)	Youth team graduate
36	Ryan Thomson		CM	26 July 1992 (1992-07-26) (age 18)	Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
-	Kazenga LuaLua		LW/RW	10 December 1990 (1990-12-10) (age 20)	Newcastle United	on loan from Newcastle United
-	Connor Wilkins		CM		Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
Strikers
9	Ashley Barnes		FW	30 October 1989 (1989-10-30) (age 21)	Plymouth Argyle
17	Glenn Murray		FW	25 September 1983 (1983-09-25) (age 27)	Rochdale
20	Chris Holroyd		FW	24 October 1986 (1986-10-24) (age 24)	Cambridge United
-	Torbjørn Agdestein		FW		Stord IL	Involved in club "development squad"
-	George Barker		FW	26 September 1991 (1991-09-26) (age 19)	Youth team graduate	Involved in club "development squad"
-	Francisco Sandaza		FW	30 November 1984 (1984-11-30) (age 26)	Dundee United

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Former players

• For all Brighton & Hove Albion players with a Wikipedia article see Category:Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players.

Personnel

Club officials

Chairman	Tony Bloom
Directors	Ray Bloom Derek Chapman Robert Comer Adam Franks Marc Sugarman
Chief Executive	Martin Perry
Managing Director	Ken Brown
Lifetime President	Dick Knight

Last updated: 19 September 2009
Source: Who's Who

Coaching and medical staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Gus Poyet
Assistant Manager	Mauricio Taricco
First Team Coach	Charlie Oatway
Goalkeeping Coach	Tony Godden
Development Squad Coach	Luke Williams
Director of Youth Football	Martin Hinshelwood
Youth Team Manager	Steve Brown
Youth Team Coach	Vic Bragg
Chief Scout	Zigor Aranalde
Youth Team Scout	Barry Lloyd
Club Doctor	Tim Stevenson
Physiotherapist	Jim Joyce
Assistant Physiotherapist	Kim Eaton
Assistant Physiotherapist	Paul Watson
Fitness Coach	Matt Miller
Kit Men	Ken Barnard & Chris Leppard

Last updated: 02 November 2009
Source: Who's Who

Honours

League

Brighton & Hove Albion's Historical League Position

• Football League Championship
  • 1978/79 Runners Up
• Football League One
  • 2001/02 Champions
• Football League One Play-Offs 1
  • 2003/04
• Football League Two
  • 1957/58 Champions (Division 3 South) (after which Div 3 North & South split in Div 3 & Div 4)
  • 1964/65 Champions
  • 2000/01 Champions
• Southern Football League Division One
  • 1909/10 Champions

Cup

• FA Cup
  • 1982/83 Runners Up

• FA Community Shield
  • 1910 Winners

See also

• Falmer Stadium

External links

• Official site
• Official picture site

References