Brendon Martin Batson,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 6 February 1953) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender for

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, Cambridge United and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

Club career

Born in

St. George's, Grenada St. George's (Grenadian Creole French: ''Sen Jòj'') is the capital of Grenada. The town is surrounded by a hillside of an old volcano crater and is located on a horseshoe-shaped harbour. St. George's is a popular Caribbean tourist destinatio ...

, Batson moved with his family to

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

at the age of 6 and then migrated from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

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 Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

is your game." However, he was signed as a schoolboy by

, and whilst at the club's academy won the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

. 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

in 1978, he successfully encouraged Batson to follow him and team up with fellow black players Cyrille Regis and

Laurie Cunningham Laurence Paul Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was an English professional footballer. A left winger, he notably played in England, France and Spain, where he became the first ever British player to sign for Real Madrid. Cunningham ...

, leaving in a deal worth £28,000. 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. The completed statue was publicly unveiled in New Square in the town on 21 May 2019. Whilst a West Bromwich Albion player he featured in a benefit match for

Len Cantello Len Cantello (born 11 September 1951) is a former football midfielder. Career West Bromwich Albion: 1967–1979 Cantello joined West Bromwich Albion as an apprentice in 1967. Aged 18, Cantello played in the 1970 League Cup Final. Cantello scor ...

, that saw a team of white players play against a team of black players. He played 160 games for the Baggies before his career was cut short in 1982 by a serious knee injury.

International career

Batson was capped three times for the England B team against the United States, Spain and Australia.

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 the longest serving member of the board of the authority. Batson was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2001 New Year Honours The 2001 New Year Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British honours system, where New Year's Day, 1 January, is marked in several Commonwealth countries by appointing new members of orders of chivalry and recipient ...

and

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2015 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2015 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

, both for services to football.

Personal life

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

Honours

Arsenal Youth *

: 1970–71 Cambridge United *

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

: 1976–77 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1976–77 Fourth Division *

: 1977–78 Third Division

References

Bibliography

*Bowler, D., & J. Bains (2000), ''Samba in the Smethwick End: Regis, Cunningham, Batson and the Football Revolution'', *Paul Rees,(2014) "The Three Degrees The Men Who Changed British Football Forever" {{DEFAULTSORT:Batson, Brendon 1953 births Living people English footballers Association football fullbacks Arsenal F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Officers of the Order of the British Empire England B international footballers Grenadian emigrants to England Black British sportspeople People from St. George's, Grenada English Football League players