Brighton chief Paul Barber is proud to see the club in Europe for the first time.
Brighton are preparing for a first ever Europa League campaign.
Barber told the club's website: It is incredible to think that Brighton were 92nd in the Football League with just two games left of the season left in 1997 and only just survived falling into non-league.
And since 1997 we have risen 86 places in the league and put ourselves in a great position by finishing in the top six last season.
European football was a pipe dream for fans back then. It was only about survival. Having somewhere to play football that wasn't in Gillingham, and outside club's home city, the place of its birth.
So everything that has happened for 25 years and the last decade is testament to the hard work from a lot of people from different eras.
You had Dick Knight and everything he did to save the club, and then into Tony Bloom's era and the vision he had to make us a Premier League club and the money to make that happen.
Reinalt Goal Celebration Hereford United 04MAY97 Evening Argus 2605
By The Argus
Robbie Reinelt scored the goal to keep Albion in the Football League back in 1997.
There is a certain irony in there that fans used to have to make a 150-mile round trip to a home game in Kent but may now be a lot happier about going to Athens to watch the team play 1,500 miles away!
I'm sure they will make that trip and much prefer it to those days at Gillingham, because they would never have imagined this would be possible."
