Brendon Batson

Biography

Born in St. George's, Grenada, Batson moved with his family to Trinidad at the age of 6 and then migrated from the West Indies to England when he was nine years old in 1962. Until then he had never even seen a game of football and a teacher at his school, on watching his early efforts and reflecting on his birthplace opined, "Well, perhaps cricket is your game." However, he was signed as a schoolboy by Arsenal, and whilst at the club's academy won the FA Youth Cup of 1971 Batson signed as a professional at 17 years old at the club and eventually went on to feature for the Gunners' first team, becoming the first black player to do so. In all, he made 10 appearances for Arsenal before moving to Cambridge United in 1974. He spent four years at Cambridge, captaining the side to the Fourth Division Championship under manager Ron Atkinson in 1976-77. At Cambridge Batson made a total of 163 appearances and scored six goals altogether. When Atkinson moved to West Bromwich Albion in 1978, he successfully encouraged Batson to follow him and to team up with fellow black players Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham. He then left Cambridge to transfer to West Brom in a deal worth £28,000 in all. Although not by any means the first black footballers to play professionally in England, the players nicknamed Three Degrees by Atkinson, a reference to contemporary vocal trio of the same name, were pioneering, iconic and extremely popular with West Brom's fans. This trio's fame is to such an extent that in 2012 plans were put forward for a statue of which would honor the footballing trio being purposely displayed in October 2014 at The Hawthorns. With this being said, the aforesaid monument is proposed to be finally unveiled at the commencement of the 2017-18 footballing season.

Whilst a West Bromwich Albion player he featured in a benefit match for Len Cantello, that saw a team of white players play against a team of black players. He altogether was capped 160 times in total at and away from The Hawthorns for the Baggies. Batson's career was unfortunately cut short in 1982 by a serious knee injury sustained upon the playing field which meant an abrupt end to his footballing career.

International career

He was capped three times for the England B team against the USA, Spain and Australia in all.

Administrative career

Following the end to his playing days, Batson was thereafter appointed as the deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association in 1984. He then spent a total of 18 years in this position and remains as a trustee of the association. He later rejoined West Brom within the role of a managing director at the club, helping to form the West Bromwich Albion Former Players' Association in 2003. Batson in 2007, joined the body then known as the Football Licensing Agency (FLA) that's now entitled as the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. He is as well the longest serving member of the board of the authority.

Batson was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours of 2001 and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015's New Year Honours, both for services to football.

Personal life

Batson was married to Cecily, who died in September 2009.

Club

Individual