There is strong evidence that Coventry City is in the process of leaving the Ricoh Arena. Staff have been told to move to the training ground at Ryton and stock in the Sky Blues shop has been taken out and loaded into transport. It is being rumoured that the Sky Blues will play their games up the M6 at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium.
There is strong evidence that Coventry City is in the process of leaving the Ricoh Arena. Staff have been told to move to the training ground at Ryton and stock in the Sky Blues shop has been taken out and loaded into transport. It is being rumoured that the Sky Blues will play their games up the M6 at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium.
If this turns out to be the case, it’s a sad day for Sky Blues fans and the city of Coventry. Relationships between Sisu and Coventry City Council have been bad for some time, as they have with Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), the operators of the stadium.
The rent being charged to the Sky Blues as a League 1 club does look high when compared with the £2m a year West Ham will be paying at the Olympic Stadium, admittedly a very good deal for them. But ACL were prepared to reduce it to a more reasonable level and give the Sky Blues a share of match day revenues. What this shows once again is that a club needs to have control of its own stadium.
In the High Court a dispute is in process about who should act as the administrator of Coventry City Football Club Limited (CCFC Ltd). It chose Rubin and Partners whereas ACL would prefer Brendan Guilfoyle of P & A Partnerships who is highly experienced in football matters and would be qualified to dig deeply into an unusual sequence of events. In court barrister Hilary Stonefrost acting for ACL said there were particular concerns about the football club’s claim to have put CCFC Ltd. into administration when the company had no assets.
ACL still hope that they can get an administration deal which would force out Sky Blues’ hedge fund owners Sisu. ACL have hired a top team of lawyers and are also rumoured to have engaged the services of a leading London public relations firm. One question would be what resources they have to sustain such a level of action. They are hoping that Mrs Justice Proudman will use her considerable discretion and come to a decision when proceedings resume on Tuesday.
ACL’s lawyer James Powell told the Coventry Evening Telegraph that ACL was seeking more information about if and when the football club moved its assets from CCFC Ltd. to Coventry City (Holdings) Ltd, which the club has stated contains its assets and liabilities. Mr Powell said the club’s key assets – the golden share in the Football League which allowed them to play; the disputed rental lease for the stadium; and players’ assets – were all listed under CCFC Ltd. when the last company accounts were filed in June 2012.
It should be emphasised that it is not unusual these days for a club to be legally structured around more than one company, and there can be perfectly valid reasons for doing that. It is also not unknown for offshore companies to be involved. There is a more general issue here about transparency and accountability which transcends Coventry City.