Nine-year quest to secure new stadium

At the time this newspaper exposed the club's plans to groundshare at Portsmouth, John Major was prime minister and one of Albion's current first-team squad was only eight.

The sensational scoop sent shockwaves throughout Sussex on July 7, 1995. Three Argus editors and ten Albion managers later, the issue of a home for the club is still high on the local agenda.

Bill Archer, who was then Albion's majority shareholder and became chairman less than two weeks later, sheepishly admitted the news had "broken rather prematurely".

Albion said they would share Pompey's Fratton Park while a 30,000-seat stadium was built at Waterhall, north of the A27, partly funded by retail development at nearby Patcham Court Farm.

But a day after breaking the initial story, The Argus revealed the then Brighton Council had already told Albion the scheme was unacceptable.

A month later, we revealed Albion had sold the Goldstone to developers Chartwell for £7.4 million - a story brazenly dismissed by chief executive David Bellotti, who urged fans to "stop whining and listening to Argus-backed speculation".

After research by chief reporter Paul Bracchi and Albion fan Paul Samrah, The Argus also revealed Archer's controlling shareholding had cost only £56.25 while Greg Stanley's minority share was £43.75 - a total of £100.

Other money injected by Archer and Stanley had been loaned with no personal risk while the value of the ground exceeded the club's debts.

Perhaps even more worryingly, Bracchi and Samrah exposed a change in the rules governing shareholders in the event of the club folding.

For 89 years from 1904, Albion's articles of association had guaranteed any surplus funds from asset sales would be distributed to another local club or charity.

But this clause was omitted from new rules adopted at an extraordinary general meeting on November 23, 1993, shortly after Archer and Stanley took control.

The no-profit clause was eventually reinstated as the new owners described its omission as an "oversight".

In another front page exclusive, The Argus revealed a £600,000 loan from the Stanley Trust had clocked up £131,250 interest against the club in less than three years while Stanley was due another £250,000 as Albion had failed to pay the interest in time.

Bracchi travelled to Archer's home in Mellor, Lancashire, and offered the startled chairman a cheque for £56.25 - the amount he had paid for his shares.

Bellotti banned The Argus and veteran newspaper seller Fred Oliver from the ground, then failed to invite anyone from the paper to a Press conference at which he unveiled plans for a 30,000-seat stadium, sports complex and retail or office development at Toad's Hole Valley, Hove.

Chief sports writer Andy Naylor and I turned up anyway but councillors soon dismissed the scheme because of its large commercial element on a sensitive greenfield site.

Two years earlier, the then Hove Council had granted planning permission for a non-food retail park at the Goldstone, Albion's home for more than 90 years.

Club directors argued planning permission would increase the value of the site, enabling the club to settle urgent tax debts by borrowing more. Archer was a director but did not control the club at that stage.

A report by Hove Council officers quoted the view of East Sussex County Council: "It would be desirable for an acceptable replacement site to be identified and developed before the Goldstone Ground is redeveloped."

Hove officers responded: "The club has declined to...accept a condition limiting the start of development to the opening of facilities elsewhere, although its architects have confirmed in writing it is the firm intention to secure the new facility prior to leaving the Goldstone.

"To impose a condition prohibiting implementation of the permission until the club has relocated ... would not meet the conditions set out in (Government guidance)."

Councillors accepted this advice and Albion managing director Barry Lloyd said the successful application would stay on the backburner "until we find ourselves a new home".

With Albion on the brink of being wound up unless the club settled its tax debts, an emergency meeting of shareholders was held at The Grand hotel, Brighton, on October 28, 1993. It was then Archer and Stanley seized control by setting up a holding company called Foray 585 (foray = sudden attack or raid).

The atmosphere around the Goldstone between 1995 and 1997 reflected an explosive cocktail of anger, desperation and contempt for Archer, Stanley and Bellotti, with pitch invasions, walk-outs, boycotts, marches and petitions, including 6,500 Archer Out! signatures collected through The Argus.

An Argus phone poll suggested 98 per cent of Albion fans would not attend matches at Portsmouth.

The Football League stressed Albion would not be allowed to share a stadium outside Brighton and Hove unless the owners produced "concrete evidence" of the club's future return to the area. Archer and Stanley could not.

Chartwell threw Albion a lifeline by offering to lease back the Goldstone for an extra season at a rent of £480,000 but the company rejected the club's counter-offer of £200,000 and set Albion a deadline of noon on April 30.

With no agreement, Albion faced homelessness and possible extinction going into the match against York on April 27, 1996. Fans invaded the pitch and pulled down both sets of goalposts, forcing the match to be abandoned after 16 minutes.

Less than an hour before Chartwell's deadline, Albion agreed to lease back the Goldstone for a season. Bellotti refused to reveal the rent but it was reported to be £480,000, the initial asking price, suggesting the club could have prevented the abandonment.

When Andy Naylor asked Bellotti if he accepted "any responsibility for what happened on Saturday", Bellotti replied: "If there is one person in this room more responsible for what happened than anyone else, it is The Argus and Andy Naylor."

Bellotti threw Andy and I out of the Press conference.

By the time Dick Knight succeeded Archer as chairman the following year, the club was committed to groundsharing even further away at Gillingham, a round-trip of 150 miles from Brighton and Hove.

At least Knight and his consortium took over a League club as Albion narrowly avoided relegation, fighting back from 11 points adrift to safety after a tense draw at Hereford in May 1997.

But supporters were angered again when I revealed in The Argus Chartwell had sold the Goldstone site for £23.86 million - £16 million more than Archer had negotiated. Fans demanded to know why he had not included a sell-on clause to benefit the club.

Early crowds at Gillingham were dismal and the new board announced plans for a temporary move to Withdean Stadium, although the local athletics stadium would need major improvements to satisfy the Football League.

An early phone poll in The Argus resulted in 683 calls for the idea and 703 against but supporters used blue and white ribbons to launch their campaign to Bring Home the Albion - BHA for short, the initials of the club.

The Argus gave out 12,000 supporter packs and campaigned hard for Albion's cause.

Writing in the Albion Almanac, supporters' club chairman Tim Carder said: "The local paper has been a wonderful and influential supporter of the Bring Home the Albion campaign and I have nothing but praise for it."

More than 32,000 people signed a petition in favour of the plans, which councillors approved by ten votes to two.

Withdean residents dropped a threatened legal challenge and the Seagulls finally flew back to Brighton and Hove in 1999 after negotiations with stadium managers Ecovert South.

Almost 45,000 people - more than two-thirds of those who voted - backed the idea of a stadium at Falmer when the council held a city-wide referendum in May 1999.

Many Falmer residents and some environmentalists opposed the club's vision but The Argus enthusiastically supported a stadium, explaining the benefits in positive stories almost every day throughout the referendum campaign.

Delays largely caused by negotiations with the universities of Brighton and Sussex over land, contract conditions and car parking meant the Falmer plans only went before councillors in June 2002.

This time the pro-stadium petition contained more than 61,000 signatures, comfortably breaking all local records, and councillors voted 11-1 in favour.

The public inquiry was held between February and October last year before Albion fans including Des Lynam and Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, delivered thousands of pro-stadium letters to 10 Downing Street.

But fans were stunned when Charles Hoile, one of two inquiry inspectors, concluded Falmer was too small and too near the South Downs for a stadium.

His report sparked further concentrated campaigning from February to May.

Much of this took place at matches, including a sit-in by fans after a game at Wycombe, the donning of John Prescott masks from The Argus for the play-off semi-final at Swindon and a carefully choreographed display of banners during the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

More than 140 MPs, including well over a third of Labour backbenchers in England, have signed a motion urging Mr Prescott to approve the stadium.

The extraordinary efforts of Paul Samrah and Tim Carder in particular may never be fully appreciated but the ongoing Falmer For All campaign is a team effort that unites all sections of Albion's diverse supporter base.

Many initiatives have originated and developed on the fans' web site North Stand Chat and through emails on the Seagulls Mailing List.

Perhaps the most ambitious so far was National Falmer Day, March 6, when Albion fans attended dozens of matches across the country to hand out leaflets and drum up support - even at arch-rivals Crystal Palace.

Other web-inspired stunts have included the delivery of flowers from League clubs to Mr Prescott in London and a giant Valentine's Day card to his constituency office in Hull.

While there is bound to be initial disappointment the decision is not an immediate Yes, Mr Prescott's letter represents giant leaps forward from Mr Hoile's report.

By reopening the inquiry against the advice of two inspectors, Mr Prescott is accepting the national need for a modern stadium in Brighton and Hove and tacitly accepting the environmental impact of a stadium at Falmer.

Albion fans everywhere will rise to the challenge of campaigning for a few more weeks.

It will be worth the wait for the right result - and the right result it will be.

The longest battle is almost won.