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Millwall recover from tragic loss

Every football club likes to consider itself unique, but in Millwall’s case, it’s unarguable.  The death in a car accident  of chairman and owner John Berylson set shock waves through the club but through football more generally.  Fans of rival clubs such as Charlton expressed their solidarity and sorrow.

Squeezed into a defiantly ungentrified corner of south east London, and yet just a couple of miles from some of the UK capital’s plushest postcodes, Millwall have always been fuelled by a siege mentality.

Their fanbase is small in comparison to other London clubs — the stadium holds just over 20,000 and is rarely full — but what they lack in numbers they make up for in atmosphere. “No one likes us, we don’t care,” has become the club’s unofficial anthem

Despite that chequered history, Millwall have won awards for work in the community, being named EFL family club of the year in 2017, and achieved Family Excellence status for the 2021-22 season, for exemplary work in engaging families on match days.

Berylson’s background was not typical Millwall. A Brown (Ivy League) and Harvard Business School graduate who became a multi-millionaire by setting up the venture capital fund Chestnut Hill, his background was the kind of New York city slicker who would ordinarily be viewed with suspicion by English football fans. 

Yet his legacy at Millwall is undisputed. Over 16 years he oversaw the club’s transformation into an established second-tier side, on a financially stable footing and with aspirations to reach the Premier League. And more than that, he established a close and genuine bond with those who worked for him, and in the club’s wider community.

There has been a remarkably smooth transition from John to James Berylson, who inherited his father’s shares in Chestnut Hill, the group that owns Millwall. As a result, there was no need for Millwall to provide the English Football League with proof of funds or clear other administrative hurdles. The morning before he died, Berlyson had also signed a document, which is required each year, to allow CEO Steve Kavanagh to sign player contracts.

This is a club which means business. They believe the best way to honour the memory of John Berylson is to push forward, work with the family, and hopefully win promotion to the Premier League.

A committee has been set up to sift through the hundreds of suggestions from fans to commemorate Berylson, including renaming a stand and building a statue, or establishing an educational scholarship run through the Millwall community trust. The decision will be made with input from the family.

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