Hate hearing things like this. Terrible for the fans! Oh how things could have been different for us!
The set up of Coventry is unfathomable (if that's a word). The football club has not gone into liquidation, although an associated company (called something like Coventry City FC Limited?) has. The club can continue to play in the league. Another associated company was charging the club £1.2 million rent. The club received a minimal amount of the revenue from catering and parking. It was the owners who blocked the CVA as they would not waive back rent. They have now complained to the league about allowing the club to move to Northampton for 3 years. Car crash
I was under the impression that the Ricoh-owners (including the Council) are not the bad guys? It is SISU who most seem to be angry with.
This would have been easier to understand if the business side of their club had been called something like "Cov City Blues". Just saying.
Gutted for the fans of the Club more than anything. Coventry have a decent history and it's all technically down the drain. The least they can do is attempt to recover. Such a shame. It highlights the problems of finances within Football again.
The latest on Talk Shyte is that Coventry are allowed to play but with a -10 deficit at the beginning of the season.
Erm guess who wants to buy the assets of the club? Lets see, could it be a company who own a stadium, that is convenient for Coventry City fans to get to? It stinks!
Scuse me. I think you'll find the "Sky" is bad luck in some Asian countries, so they dropped it to make themselves more marketable. Racist!
They went for Otium Entertainment Group, splitting the club from the business side has obviously been a rip roaring success.
Had a rummage round and found this explanation of events. I can't help but feel for the Coventry fans. CLICK HERE. There but for the grace of God. As some of you may know, but unfortunately the majority may not, my club Coventry City FC, of the nPower League 1, are in turmoil. Attempting to sum up everything that has happened to us over recent times is a near impossible task, but I hope that reading this post and a Google search or two will help educate more people on the matter. We the fans wish to bring the despicable actions of our board to the attention of the wider footballing world, at least to show what can happen to a club who live in the hearts of many. Wall of text incoming, I'm very sorry. To begin, some information on how our club worked: We are owned by a hedge fund named SISU, who took us over on the brink of administration in 2007, promising to clear all debts and start "Operation Premiership". They have failed to provide accounts to Companies House multiple times. They are owned by a woman named Joy Seppala, who has never been seen by anyone. The Cheif Executive of our club is Tim Fisher, SISU's mouth to the public. We played at a ground called the Ricoh Arena, a 32500 seater state-of-the-art stadium opened in 2005. It also comprises of a casino, 9000 person exhibition hall, hotel, gym and executive facilities. Crucially, it is not owned by the club. Coventry Council and a charity (The Alan Higgs Trust) each own a half stake. They are collectively known as ACL, from whom the club rents the ground. Our average attendance was far less than half of the capacity. Last season, SISU put a part (but not the whole) of the club into administration. Huge debts (up to £70million) are still owed to various sources, and crucially, no rent has been paid to ACL for over a year. True, the rent rate was ridiculously high (£1.4million/year), but that's the deal which was signed and SISU have refused to pay. It was determined by the League (correctly of course) that we were given a 10 point deduction, losing out on any chance of the playoffs. Here was where many strange things started happening. An administrator was appointed to deal with the club. Despite the fact this should be impartial, the man was of SISU's choice alone. We were told by SISU that we had been thrown out of the Ricoh for unpaid rent, and that they were considering playing home games elsewhere, outside of the city of Coventry. The ground owners ACL stated that this was a lie. Their doors were still open. They then even offered for us to play there completely free for the upcoming season. It was announced 4 bids came in for the part of the club in administration. The winning bid, which the administrator said "was the highest by some margin", came from a subsidiary of SISU themselves, named Otium Ltd. So a company put itself into administration with huge debts, then buys itself back out again. That doesn't add up to me, but the Football League cleared it with no problem. It was announced that the club had agreed to play its home games at Northampton Town, 35 miles from Coventry. The Football League rules state that a ground share cannot be more than 30 miles from the club. But that obviously doesn't matter. The plan (supposedly) was to play there for 3 years, but crucially the words "a minimum of 3" have been added to the agreement. The talk is now that it will be 5. These shares are only allowed if the club has a clear plan to return. No plan has ever been seen. SISU now want to build a new ground somewhere in Coventry, despite the fact we have a high-quality ground that's only 8 years old. So they cannot afford to pay £1.4million in rent, but have the money to build an entirely new ground and its infrastructure? Yet no actual announcement has ever been made, nothing agreed, and there is no proof that SISU ever intend to actually do anything they promise. Liquidation is a very real possibility now. We almost expect it. And then our beloved CCFC will be no more. To summarise, the board expects home fans to travel a 70 mile round trip to every home game. Due to the share, at least 13 "home" games have been moved to Sundays or Friday nights, due to Northampton having their own games. Season tickets were only put on sale yesterday, and no kit has been announced. So for a whole summer, not a penny has come into our club from any fans. Clearly, we aren't agreeing with this, and the fans have protested throughout the summer. A petition with more than 20000 signatures has been totally ignored. Calls for official meetings between SISU and our Supporter's Trust, who represent the fans, have been rejected without consideration. Today, a march was held through the city, my pictures of which are here: http://imgur.com/a/EXn8a. The diversity in the people present today was amazing, it shows that football is part of people of all types, and our club is being ruined by heartless businessmen and women with no idea of what it means to so many. It has been made clear to the club that the majority of fans will not travel. Our "Diamond Club", compromising fans with 50+ years of continued support, have announced not a single member will travel. For many of these older people, they may have seen their last ever Coventry game. Younger children will now not be able to see their heroes, and a whole generation of fans may well be lost. We had fans of AFC Wimbledon joining us today, to whom we are so grateful. They've been through an even worse situation, and their support made us so happy. I must admit, the reception their attendance got when it was announced in the first speech of the march brought a lump to my throat. Statements were read out from other Supporter's Trusts, as varied as Liverpool to Birmingham City, supporting our cause. Thank you from the bottoms of our Sky Blue hearts to everyone who has done so. Rivalries were put aside, and the love of the game united fans from across the country. I'm fairly sure I'll have missed some crucial information, and I'm very sorry, but so much has happened that it's all so confusing. Please AMA in the comments if clarification is needed. Thank you to all who have read my post. We're all so disillusioned that we're not sure what we can do any more, but just know that we have to keep fighting, and never give up on our club. Awareness is the key, and we want everyone to know the terrible things that can happen when sport becomes a business. Part of my life, my first love, and that of many others, is being disregarded. I hope such a thing never happens to any of your clubs, as we all know how much the game means to us. Fight the corporate culture of football and bring it back to those without whom it could not exist, us, the fans.
Club that lived beyond its means for years and with ****ty fans. Remember their attitude when we won there in our first season back in the Championship. Suck it up, losers.
Yes. You out some money in and it entitles you to make stupid decision after stupid decision, and no one has any right to contest them because of the money he's put in .
