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Pre Season: Splashing the Cash
New Sponsor Lewisham Council, Asda pay £3.7m Damages to former Chairman Alan Thorne and an old boy returns.
Millwall announced a four year sponsorship deal with
Lewisham Council worth £70,000 a year.

Lewisham Council Leader David Sullivan with Alan
Mcleary and Teddy Sheringham at the launch of the
new kit.

  
 
 

Millwall sign deal with Lewisham
Millwall have signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Lewisham Council worth £280,000.

By Sandy Smith

The £70,000 a year deal runs for four years and will put the borough's name on newly designed blue shirts. The club hopes the sponsorship will keep at bat the property developers keen to move-in on Cold Blow Lane.

The club spent some of the sponsorship money today when they shelled out £85,000 for one of their former players Kevin O'Callaghan, the Portsmouth winger who left The Den eight years ago.

Millwall plan to unveil their new strip and the full details behind their controversial link up with Lewisham Council at a Special Press Conference on Monday.

By ROB BOWDEN

News of the £70,000 a year sponsorship scheme was leaked out this week including the fact that next season the players will wear shirts with the word Lewisham on the font alongside the Labour controlled council's logo and the club badge.

But chief executive Graham Hortop was quick to dismiss reports that the club is also considering changing its name to Lewisham Millwall.

"That's a complete non-starter," he said. "I'd like to kill that story stone-dead before people start getting upset about it".

Under the new agreement Millwall will also allow the council to advertise at the Den and in their match day programme, and the players will take part in Lewisham's anti-drugs and anti-racism campaigns.

Millwall officials are quietly proud of the way they have improved their club's image this season and they are hoping that the Lewisham tie up will finally kill off their 'hooligan' reputation once and for all.

There will also he a concession of 100 tickets for the old, needy and the handicapped - but the deal' has already been slammed by local Tory leader David Green.

"It is a complete waste of money for the borough. It doesn't solve any local problems and the only reason for it is to hype up Lewisham council by giving money to a club that doesn't need it."

Millwall's former owners have just been awarded £3.7 Million in compensation against the Asda-MFI superstore chain, who agreed to develop part of the Den site only to pull out - but the club won't see any of that money.

 
 
 
Double Delight as Lions snap up Eire Star

 

 
Above: Cally shows off the new kit

Below: Getting all Agricultural: Laying of new pitch drainage System (Back row) Alan Walker, Danis Salman and Groundsman John Plummer. (Front row) Paul Sansome and Michael Marks.

 
MILLWALL'S hopes of ending their 100-year wait for First Division football got a significant boost yesterday, when they splashed out £85,000 on Eire international midfield Kevin O'Callaghan.

It meant there was a double celebration down at the Den on the day that Millwall chairman Reg Burr formally signed the club's new £70,000-a-year sponsorship deal with Lewisham Council.


By ROB BOWDEN


O'Callaghan kicked off his career as an apprentice at Millwall and made 20 first team appearances before being sold to Ipswich in 1979 for £220,000. He moved on to Portsmouth for £90,000 in 1984 and made 38 appearances last season as Alan Ball's men clinched promotion to the First Division after two near misses.

"I was interested in signing Kevin before the transfer deadline in March, but with Portsmouth going for promotion there was no way Alan Ball was going to release anybody," explained Millwall manager John Docherty.

Undeterred the Doc renewed his interest last week and after he had agreed a fee with Ball, Chief Scout Bob Pearson flew over to Ireland to sort out personal terms with O'Callaghan before Eire's international with Brazil.

"I am quite happy with the fee, especially when you consider that he is only 25-years-old and he has played over 100 First Division games for Ipswich on top of his international experience," said Docherty.

"We have had to fill in on the left side of midfield all season and I am sure Kevin will help strengthen the squad considerably - it's a great start to the summer."

I am hoping to sign two more players before the start of the season, but they have to be the right ones, I'm not going to sign anybody just for the sake of it."

While Docherty waited for confirmation that O'Callaghan had come through his medical successfully, chairman Reg Burr expressed his delight at the Lewisham Link-up.

For too long football clubs have been at the mercy of people who did not feel any social obligation towards either the community or the supporters," he said.

"This agreement we have signed goes a long way towards protecting Millwall from any outside interference."

"We are 102 years old yet we are the only club in London who have not played in the First Division - it's about time we altered that!"
                    

MILLWALL manager John Docherty's summer team strengthening got off to a flying start when Eire international midfielder Kevin O'Callaghan signed on the dotted line this week.

And O'Callaghan's £85,000 move from Portsmouth helped add to an exciting atmosphere of change down at the Den as Lions officials unveiled a new strip, their new sponsors and a new package of ground improvements.

O'Callaghan (above Right), models the new strip with its diagonal, blue shadow-striped shirts and white shorts, re- placing the blue ones which the club favoured last season.

Meanwhile a £25,000 operation to improve the Den playing surface is already well under way and new flood-lights will also be installed in time for next season.

"Between the beginning of last season and the start of the 1987-88 season we will have spent just under £400,000 on ground improvements" explained Millwall chairman Reg Burr.

"You would he hard pressed to find it by looking around the ground, but what we are dealing with is 40 years of neglect and we are not going to be able to put things right over-night. The current board has been in charge of the club for just under 12 months and during that time we have spent a lot of energy, time and money on laying a foundation for the revitalisation of Millwall."
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