Glad tidings. Victor Gladwish (left) and Forest FC chairman Simon Cripps after signing the £14,000 sponsorship deal.
FOREST Football Club have become the latest local side to benefit from the generosity of football mad multi-millionaire Victor Gladwish.
The club have signed a five-year sponsorship deal worth nearly £14,000 with Gladwish Land Sales and also have a further three-year option on the agreement.
Gladwish, the 59-year-old owner-director of GLS, who after many years working to build up his Horsham-based company wants to spend time on the touchline rather than at his desk, is rapidly becoming the Roman Abramovich of local football after splashing out his money on a third club.
In August he agreed a £200,000 deal with Dr Martens Premier club Crawley Town, a fortnight ago he pledged £95,000 to Horsham YMCA and the County League Division 3 side are the latest club to benefit from Gladwish's desire to put something into local football.
"It's marvellous. It's like winning the lottery," said Forest chairman Simon Cripps, who was without a main sponsor and decided to approach Gladwish after hearing about the YMCA deal.
"I read the paper and knew that Victor was still interested in local football. I left my card and my number. I'm a salesman at the end of the day, and if you don't ask you don't get," he explained. "He tried about four times to phone me," said Gladwish. "It was about eight," joked the Forest chairman, and the pair eventually met at the end of last week.
"The first thing Victor said to me was 'where's your list'?" recalled Cripps. "I said 'what I want today is a medical kit' and I got it."
Gladwish and his son Sebastian visited Forest's ground at Roffey Sports & Social Club in Spooners Road on Saturday and watched the club's match with Wadhurst. Before the game he went into the clubhouse for a drink and was introduced to some of the fans.
"You felt comfortable with it. It was nice and relaxed. Basically I asked Forest what they needed to run the club and gave them half of it," he said.
"From a chairman's point of view for someone to give you half of your running costs is superb," responded Cripps. "Although we're not a professional club it allows us to be more like a professional club."
GLS have a long history of sponsoring football clubs and over recent years have been associated with several teams in Kent and currently sponsor Herne Bay. Gladwish is now looking to organise a cup competition between the four teams he sponsors.
The father of four recently moved from Horsham to Pease Pottage with his family but recalled a time when his lifestyle was not as comfortable as it is now.
He admitted that he got a bit of a shock when he returned back to Britain after a career in the army and found himself homeless. "I was too proud to sign on then - I did later on," he laughed. "I ended up on a pig farm, shovelling pig muck, just to have a tied cottage full of second hand furniture and cockroaches. From time to time I landed up back on the dole but I had belief in what I was doing."
But Gladwish's business, which is based in London Road, Horsham, is currently thriving and the company has just opened a new office in the Bishopric. He is now using that success to support local football.
"It's putting smiles on faces, it means that they've got a future to look forward to. Everything I'm doing is really appreciated," he explained.
"I'd like to thank Mr Gladwish for helping to back the club," said Cripps, who also wanted to acknowledge their gratitude to the Roffey S&SC for their ongoing support.
He has already sensed a more buoyant mood among members who had heard about the sponsorship.
"We want everyone who wears the shirt to be proud of wearing it."
It did not take the Forest chairman long to realise that his prospective sponsor was onside as they watched the match on Saturday.
"You could see straight away. Some people love football and some people don't. It wasn't that long before he was getting out of his seat. "I'm a bit of an excitable character and stood up and shouted, and two minutes later he stood up and shouted 'come on Forest, there are thousands riding on this'."
But Cripps is determined to use the money wisely to create an infrastructure at the club to attract local players and develop their talent.
He reflected back on the 1980s when they won the Sussex Intermediate cup but it is developing young talent that he feels is even more important.
"To be able to say that a lad who's playing for Ipswich, Man United or Brighton used to play for Forest would give me more pleasure," he said. "I've never understood why Horsham doesn't produce players who play professional football."
One of the common mistakes Cripps will not make is to try and buy quick success. "I said to Victor when we first met that I don't want to pay players. We're not in a position where we can do that," he said.
Instead he is looking for the club to progress on the field and up the divisions so that they can generate the income themselves. "Once we get gates coming in, and we could get 300 people, then I can say 'right lads, well done, there's a bit of money', but I'm a business man and I can't run a football club on sand."
What the sponsorship money can do is provide players with an environment to really enjoy their football.
"We've got youngsters coming through who want to play for Forest Football Club," said Cripps. "When we first introduced the shirts and tracksuits they wore them everywhere. They were proud to wear the shirt, that's what it's all about."
Gladwish will have plenty of choice as to how to spend his Saturday afternoons, but Cripps is quite happy to be third in the pecking order.
But the big spending businessman thinks it will probably be the last time he gets out his chequebook unless he buys a club.
"On the money I've already spent, people will wonder why I haven't bought a club," he said. "But you don't see in a newspaper that a club's for sale because nobody wants to admit they're having rough times and are not marketable."
However, the bottom line for Gladwish is now being able to actually enjoy his football. "I don't want to have a club that I can't go to myself and watch. I want to go there and be part of it. I'm pretty prepared to do a Matthew Harding and go and stand behind the goal and give it some welly."
Anyone who is interested in joining Roffey Sports & Social Club, or playing for Forest Football Club, should phone 01403 210223 or 01403 250938 respectively.
Story and picture from West Sussex County Times, Friday September 19 2003.