Ronald Frederick Bendall (18 November 1909 – 5 April 1983) was a British businessman best known for his association with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

, being first a director from 1975 and then chairman from 1980 to 1982.

Biography

Educated at Camp Hill Grammar School in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Bendall made his fortune as a chartered accountant specialising in receiverships and liquidations. His period as director of

was fraught with problems and boardroom battles for power, most notably with

Doug Ellis Sir Herbert Douglas Ellis, (3 January 1924 – 11 October 2018) was an English entrepreneur. He was the chairman of Aston Villa Football Club from 1968 to 1975, and again from 1982 until 2006. Ellis was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours ...

. Although there were major successes on the pitch under manager

Ron Saunders Ronald Saunders (6 November 1932 – 7 December 2019) was an English football player and manager. He played for Everton, Tonbridge Angels, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Watford and Charlton Athletic during a 16-year playing career, before moving ...

during his tenure, in which the club won the First Division title in season 1980-81 and European Cup in season 1981-82, Bendall's regime was beset by controversy. He introduced his son, Donald to the board, and amid cries of nepotism

Sir William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Colesh ...

, Alan Smith and Harry Cressman resigned in protest. This was then followed by a power struggle with Doug Ellis and

Eric Houghton William Eric Houghton (29 June 1910 – 1 May 1996) was an English footballer and manager. Eric Houghton was born in Billingborough, Lincolnshire, and educated at Donington Grammar School. Houghton signed for Aston Villa as a seventeen-year- ...

. This boardroom struggle was eventually won by the Bendall's who bought out the Ellis shares in 1979 to give them a 42% holding in the club. To the surprise of commentators and fans, Ron Saunders quit halfway through the 1981–82 season, with Villa in the quarter-final of the European Cup. Saunders had expressed his exasperation with the board at the lack of funds available to him to strengthen the team and fell out with the chairman Ron Bendall over the terms of his contract. Bendall cancelled the managers 'rollover' clause that would guarantee him a three-year pay-off in the event of his being sacked. Saunders was replaced by his softly-spoken assistant manager Tony Barton who guided the club to a 1–0 victory over

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

in the European Cup final in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

courtesy of a

Peter Withe Peter Withe (; born 30 August 1951) is an English former football Manager (association football), manager and Forward (association football)#Striker, striker who played between 1971 and 1990. At Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest he won ...

goal in the 67th minute, making Villa only the fourth English club to lift the European Cup. Due to ill-health, Bendall sold his shares back to Doug Ellis in November 1982. The club was saddled with significant debts and questions had been raised by the police regarding fraudulent financial activity surrounding the building of the North Stand at Villa Park from 1980-82. The cost of the work was £1.3 million. An internal investigation found that £700,000 of the £1.3 million worth of bills were unaccounted for. A later report by accountants

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

found that there were "serious breaches of recommended codes of practice and poor site supervision."Inglis, Simon (1997), p.188 Bendall died at

Lezayre Lezayre ( ; ), formally Kirk Christ Lezayre, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man. It is located in the north of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) in the sheading of Ayre. Administratively, par ...

in the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, where he was living as a tax exile.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bendall, Ron 1909 births 1983 deaths Aston Villa F.C. directors and chairmen English football chairmen and investors 20th-century English businesspeople