Brian Mears
From TheChels.info - The Chelsea Football Club Wiki
Before Chelsea
Mears was born in Richmond, Surrey, and educated at Malvern College. In 1950 he emigrated to Canada where he began working life in a seed factory. He returned to the United Kingdom shortly afterwards and did his national service as a radio operator in the Royal Air Force.
Chelsea Chairman
Brian Mears took over as chairman following the death of Len Withey in 1969, at the age of 38, and presided over the club's successful period in the early 1970s, when the FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup were won in consecutive seasons. He remained in the position until 1981, when a boardroom coup d'etat led by Viscount Chelsea saw him removed with the club in a dire position both on and off the pitch, mainly a result of the disastrous attempt to redevelop Stamford Bridge during the 1970s. He sold the club to Ken Bates a year later for a nominal sum of £1. Mears came under fire when his shares in the Stamford Bridge freehold were later sold to property developers Marler Estates; he insisted that it was his wife who controlled the shares.
After Chelsea
After leaving Chelsea, Mears relocated to the United States, where he was involved with several North American soccer teams and ran a car dealership in Long Beach, California. He wrote several books on Chelsea. Despite befriending Chelsea director Matthew Harding and chairman Bruce Buck in later years, he never set foot in Stamford Bridge again.[2] Mears died of heart failure on 28 July 2009.
| Chairmen of Chelsea |
|---|
| Claude Kirby (1905–35) • Charles Pratt, Sr. (1935–36) • Lt. Col. Charles Crisp (1936–40) • Joe Mears (1940–66) Charles Pratt, Jr. (1966–68) • Len Withey (1968–69) • Brian Mears (1969–81) • Viscount Chelsea (1981–82) Ken Bates (1982–04) • Bruce Buck (2004–) |
