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Bill Bratt
William Amos Bratt MBE (born 1945) is an English insurance broker and former football club chairman who was the chair of Port Vale from 2003 to 2011. After decades working in the insurance industry, Bratt turned his attention to his hometown, Port Vale, after the club faced dark times. Leading the 'Valiant 2001' supporter's trust, he gained control from the administrators and previous chairman Bill Bell in 2003. He then battled to steady the club's finances while advancing through the leagues. Though the team fared poorly on the pitch throughout his reign, falling to the bottom tier of the Football League, he managed to keep the club afloat financially, though still the club continued to lose money. He left the club after fan protests against his chairmanship. Early life Bratt's stepfather was a World War II veteran who was taken by the Japanese as a prisoner of war. After the war, his father appeared to be mentally scarred from his time in POW camps and regularly beat him, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Modern honours, knight if male or a dame (title), dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with the order, but are not members of it. The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V, who created the order to recognise 'such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire'. Equal recognition was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas. Today, the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order. Honorary awards may be made to cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charity (practice)
Charity is the Volunteering, voluntary provision of assistance to those in need. It serves as a Humanitarianism, humanitarian act, and is unmotivated by self-interest. Various Philosophy, philosophies about charity exist, with frequent associations with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' originated in late Old English to mean a "Christianity, Christian love for one's fellows", and until at least the beginning of the 20th century, this meaning remained synonymous with charity. Apart from this original meaning, ''charity'' is etymologically linked to Christianity, with the word originally entering the English language through the Old French word , which derived from the Latin , a word commonly used in the Vulgate New Testament to translate the Greek word (), a distinct form of Love (religious views)#Christian, love. Over time, the meaning of ''charity'' has evolved from "Christian love" to "providing for those in need; generosity and giving" (cf. ''offertory''), a transiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manager (association Football)
In association football, the manager is the person who has overall responsibility for the running of a football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st .... They have wide-ranging responsibilities, including selecting the team, choosing the tactics, recruiting and transferring players, negotiating player contracts, and speaking to the media. In professional football, a manager is usually appointed by and answerable to the club's board of directors, but at an amateur level the manager may have total responsibility for the running of a club. Responsibilities The manager's responsibilities in a professional football club usually include (but are not limited to) the following: * Selecting the team of players for matches, and their formation. * Planning the strateg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Promotion And Relegation
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called open leagues. In a system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are ''promoted'' to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are ''relegated'' to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the ''promotion zone'', and those at the bottom are in the ''relegation zone'' (colloquially the ''drop zone'' or ''facing the drop''). These can also involve being in zones where promotion and relegation is not automatic but subject to a playoff, such as in the EFL Championship where teams 3rd to 6th enter a playoff for promotion to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Executive Officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in various organizations, including public and private corporations, Nonprofit organization, nonprofit organizations, and even some government organizations (notably state-owned enterprises). The governor and CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the business, which may include maximizing the profitability, market share, revenue, or another financial metric. In the nonprofit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, usually provided by legislation. CEOs are also frequently assigned the role of the main manager of the organization and the highest-ranking officer in the C-suite. Origins The term "chief executi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was released in 1997, and included his best-selling single "Angels (Robbie Williams song), Angels". His second album, ''I've Been Expecting You'', featured the songs "Millennium (song), Millennium" and "She's the One (World Party song), She's the One", his first and second number one singles. Robbie Williams discography, His discography includes seven UK No. 1 singles, and all but one of his 14 studio albums have reached List of artists by number of UK Albums Chart number ones, No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom, top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60, and he gained a Guinness World Record in 2006 for selling List of fastest-selling concert tours, 1. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Under-soil Heating
Under-soil heating is a method used in various sports stadia (with a grass surface) which heats the underside of the pitch to avoid any elements from bad weather, such as snow and ice, from building up and ultimately helps the club avoid having to postpone any matches. Most English Premier League teams now have this installed in their stadiums. While it is not an official requirement, it avoids any financial loss that a club might face in having to postpone any matches due to bad weather. The first ground in England to have under-soil heating installed was Goodison Park in 1958. The pitch at Old Trafford has of under-soil heating and at Elland Road there is an under-soil heating system installed beneath the surface, consisting of 59 miles (95 km) of piping. Technology Under-soil heating technology is designed to address the challenges of adverse weather conditions, specifically the accumulation of ice and snow on ground surfaces. The system consists of a network of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2002–03 Port Vale F
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen but shorter than the minus sign; the emdash , longer than either the en dash or the minus sign; and the horizontalbar , whose length varies across typefaces but tends to be between those of the en and em dashes. Typical uses of dashes are to mark a break in a sentence, to set off an explanatory remark (similar to parenthesis), or to show spans of time or ranges of values. The em dash is sometimes used as a leading character to identify the source of a quoted text. History In the early 17th century, in Okes-printed plays of William Shakespeare, dashes are attested that indicate a thinking pause, interruption, mid-speech realization, or change of subject. The dashes are variously longer (as in ''King Lear'' reprinted 1619) or comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Administration (British Football)
In the United Kingdom, football clubs sometimes choose to enter administration ( sanction) when they are unable to pay off outstanding debts. Under the Insolvency Act 1986, a business will face a winding-up order bringing them to court and if it is shown that a business cannot pay debts as they fall due or cannot repay outstanding debts then the company will be classified as insolvent. Administration puts accountants "in charge of pretty much everything apart from coaching the players and picking the team". For a football club in administration, the "football creditors rule" requires football-related debts such as wages owed to players and staff, and transfer fees owed to other clubs to be paid first. England and Wales In 2000, ITV Digital bought the broadcasting rights to Football League and League Cup matches in a three-year, £315m deal. In March 2002, the company went bankrupt owing the League £180 million which it said it "cannot afford to pay". Because of this, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consortium
A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal. Consortia are generally nonprofit with a goal to help its members improve their competitiveness in the specific field. is a Latin word meaning " partnership", "association", or "society", and derives from ("shared in property"), itself from ("together") and ("fate"). Examples Educational The Universities' consortium is established to share research laboratories and equipment facilities, exchange faculty and students, provide programs abroad, and form specialized research centers and admissions offices.Wallace Lang D (1975). "The consortium in higher education". ''Journal of Educational Administration'', 13(2), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009730 Generally, it includes a corporate identity, voluntary membership of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insurance Broker
An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negotiating with multiple insurers, while an agent represents one or more specific insurers under a contract. As of 2019, the largest insurance brokers in the world by revenue are Marsh & McLennan, Aon plc, Willis Towers Watson, Arthur J. Gallagher and Hub International. In Australia In Australia, all insurance brokers are required under the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 to be licensed by the federal government's Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Reputable and experienced insurance brokers in Australia will generally also hold additional qualifications such as a certificate or diploma in financial services which requires the completion of in depth studies in a specific area, the most common being general insura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
