Skip to main content

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.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more