Our History: Why we came about
BIAS was established in 1997, but grew originally from fans’ dismay at the damage wrought on the club during the last season of David Webb’s ownership of Brentford in 1997/1998.A group of concerned supporters rallied opposition to him, calling themselves the Brentford Independent Association of Supporters, or BIAS for short. A mailing list was established, with membership paid for in postage stamps. Before too long, the ‘W£bb Out’ campaign was successful, with him selling the club in the summer of 1998 to Ron Noades, the former Crystal Palace owner.
Following Webb’s departure, the debate about the need for an independent fans’ organisation in the future continued. Four supporters: John McGlashan, Edmund Paton-Walsh, Russell Owen, and David Merritt, took forward the idea of a relaunching BIAS as an independent supporters group with a focus on supporting Brentford fans with any issues with the club.
In 2000-01, Ron Noades, had concluded that the club could not be financially sustainable at Griffin Park. Under his stewardship the club had lost over £1.5 million. His simple strategy was to sell Griffin Park to a housing developer, create a ground share with a non-league club outside the borough and therefore pressure Hounslow Council to find us a new site within the borough. The club had actually applied for and achieved outline planning permission for housing on Griffin Park, casting a whole shadow over the club. In hindsight this event did more to rouse ‘ordinary’ Brentford fans into action than any since 1967.
BIAS helped organise the ‘No to Woking’ campaign – raising funds, rallying support from around the world of football, organising a picket of the friendly at Woking, and even preparing a submission for the Football League, who would rule on Noades’ plans. BIAS committee members were amongst the fans representatives that went to lobby League officials face-to-face. Fortunately, all our work paid off, and Noades abandoned his plans following the League’s ruling that the club should not be allowed to move.
The BIAS Committee led by John McGlashan, recognised that the stadium was an issue, the ownership was an issue, and at the time the results were not helping the future of the club. They decided to act on an idea, the seeds of which dated back to the original relaunch of BIAS in 1998, to create a ‘Supporters’ Trust to enable Brentford fans to start to take control of the direction the club were going in.
At a public meeting in March 2001, the response to this idea was favourable and the group behind the idea worked with the government advisory body, Supporters Direct to put together a constitution and prospectus for what would become Bees United. An official launch on 26 April 2001 took place in front of over 200 fans at Hounslow Civic Centre.
Frustrated by the experience of discussing stadium venues with the council, then BIAS chairman Paul Stedman floated the idea of standing candidates in the following year’s local council elections.
What would become the ABeeC Party was born, and six short (and frantic) months later, Brentford supporter, Luke Kirton’s won an historic election victory in May 2002. Never had a candidate standing on behalf of their local football club ever actually won a seat. It said an awful lot for the high regard the club is held in locally, and the tremendous efforts of its fans, that we should be the first to do so.
Around this time was the identification of Lionel Road as the preferred site for a new stadium. With Bees United now taking the lead on this, aided by the Stadium Action Group, and following several months of private investigation, the club were able to officially unveil proposals for the site in late 2002. This time the reception within local government was much more responsive.
The Bees made the switch in 2020 and they were finally able to execute a plan that had been in development since 2002.
Bees United and BIAS continue to work together for the good of all Brentford Fans, we co-chair the Fan Advisory Board (FAB) and work collaboratively together in various working groups co-ordinated by the club.
BIAS continues to operate as an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation run by fans for fans. We firmly believe that we can campaign more effectively on behalf of our members by remaining independent of the club thereby enabling BIAS to openly criticise the club when we feel supporters are not treated fairly or with respect.
We continue to keep the best interests of our members at the heart of everything we do. We firmly believe that “together we are stronger.”
Former chairs
- John McGlashan (1998-2001)
- Pete Johnston (2001-2002)
- Paul Stedman (2002-2003)
- Matt Dolman (2003-2004)
- Luke Kirton (2004-2005)
- Emma Parry (2005-2006)
- No chair – rotated (2006–08)
- Richard Merritt (2008-2016)
- Adam Hobbs (2016-2024)
- Angelo Basu (2024-Present)