Fans' takeover of Brentford edges closer (From This Is Local London)

Fans' takeover of Brentford edges closer

4:36pm Friday 30th December 2005

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SUPPORTERS' trust Bees United can go ahead with their takeover of the club and set about appointing a new board of directors on January 20.

This follows extraordinary general meetings of Brentford FC Ltd and Griffin Park Stadium Ltd last week when shareholders approved the legal and financial arrangements for Bees United to acquire the majority share-holdings in the two companies, as well as Brentford Holdings Ltd.

The previous day, the boards of directors of all three companies signed the necessary documents to allow Griffin Park to be used as security for the refinancing of the club's debts.

On December 22, 67 Bees United members who attended a special general meeting in Stripes voted unanimously to support the takeover.

Bees United, who boast former BBC director general Greg Dyke among their members and have enjoyed the support of London Mayor Ken Livingstone, will soon announce a new Brentford chairman to replace Eddie Rogers.

Rogers, Jon Harting and Joe Bourke will remain as board members, but Graham Hall and Doug White resigned last week following the earlier departures of Andrew Wainwright and John McGlashan. Finance director Stephen Cullen will be the next to go.

Hall, originally a Bees United nominee, had been under pressure from the supporters trust to quit after the board's over-optimisitc' budget.

A motion calling on him to resign was carried by 151-65 votes, with 21 abstentions, at the Bees United meeting (including proxy votes). But by then Hall had already announced his resignation.

Bees United chairman Brian Burgess said: "We won't be announcing members of the new board until the takeover, hopefully on January 20.

"We need to finalise all the legal documents for the £5.5m of loans, to collect the money that has been pledged to the Back the Bees campaign and to raise enough additional cash to pay the legal fees."

The £1m Back the Bees cash will be loaned to Brentford.

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