Coventry City petition - please read & sign

[SkyBlueJim]

Hi guys,

Coventry City fan here in peace.

In order to bring to light the problem with football governance in our country we are demanding an enquiry by the government into how it came to be that CCFC are playing their matches 35 miles outside the city.

It would be greatly appreciated if you took 30 seconds to sign the petition. Even better if you could share it. If the petition reaches 100,000 signatures it will have to be considered by government.
<a class="postlink" href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59884" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59884</a>


I am posting this after hearing of the crazy state of affairs at LUFC recently.

From what I gather, the person fronting the takeover of their club has both previously been convicted of fraud AND once uprooted an Italian club from one side of the country to the other to play out matches in front of 200 spectators.

What with my club also being owned by a private equity firm I’m not surprised to hear GFH are going ahead with this sale in their own interests and nobody else’s.

I find it appalling that, given everything that has happened with not just my club but many others, the football authorities are considering allowing the takeover at LUFC to go through.

Once again they are failing to prevent outside interests from making a mockery of our game and its heritage.

In order for this petition to be effective us Cov fans rely on the football community coming together in this time of need. Your help is much appreciated.

(For those not aware of the background to the CCFC situation and wanting to know more, the extract below is as short hand as it gets and is taken from a recent Q&A with ArsenalOnline prior to our cup game at the Emirates).

Many thanks

 

[SkyBlueJim]

Re: Leeds Thread (Merged)

Most people blame our owners, the Sisu hedge fund, and many people suspect their actions over the last two years are all about trying to get ownership of the Ricoh Arena on the cheap.

The Coventry City saga makes Lord of the Rings look short, but here goes –
• Until the mid 1990s we were well run and solvent
• 1996 a new chairman decided to ‘have a punt’ on success
• 2001 relegated from the Premiership with something like £60 million debt
• 2005 after more crises moved from our Highfield Road ground to the Ricoh Arena as tenants with the Arena owned by ACL (Arena Coventry Limited), a joint venture between Coventry City Council and a local Charity
• 2007 CCFC was taken over by Sisu, a hedge fund
• 2010 with the global financial crisis hitting Sisu hard, Sisu’s owner Joy Seppala took direct control
• 2012 Sisu declared the rent being paid to ACL was too high and stopped paying it
• 2012 Relegated to League 1
• 2013 Sisu declared they are going to build a new stadium in ‘the Coventry area’, but not in the City itself
• 2013 club went into Administration
• 2013 Sisu relocated the club to Northampton, approved by the Football League for a period of 3 to 5 years

• Today – CCFC has been described as a basket-case. Currently:

- The crisis continues to be played out in the courts and media, with the next phase being a Judicial Review Sisu has sought against the Council but that won’t happen for months
- Sisu continue to say they will build a new stadium but have not purchased land, engaged in discussions with planning authorities nor submitted a planning application
- Our owner is so secretive there is no publicly available photo of her so we don’t even know what she looks like
- The vast majority of City fans are boycotting games at Northampton and attendances there are hitting record lows with an average of around 2,000 including visiting fans, but there’s been a massive increase in numbers going to away games
- A generation of new football fans is being lost and the heart is being ripped out of our club
- There is no indication of when, if ever, we will return to Coventry

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Re: Leeds Thread (Merged)

Most people blame our owners, the Sisu hedge fund, and many people suspect their actions over the last two years are all about trying to get ownership of the Ricoh Arena on the cheap.

The Coventry City saga makes Lord of the Rings look short, but here goes –
• Until the mid 1990s we were well run and solvent
• 1996 a new chairman decided to ‘have a punt’ on success
• 2001 relegated from the Premiership with something like £60 million debt
• 2005 after more crises moved from our Highfield Road ground to the Ricoh Arena as tenants with the Arena owned by ACL (Arena Coventry Limited), a joint venture between Coventry City Council and a local Charity
• 2007 CCFC was taken over by Sisu, a hedge fund
• 2010 with the global financial crisis hitting Sisu hard, Sisu’s owner Joy Seppala took direct control
• 2012 Sisu declared the rent being paid to ACL was too high and stopped paying it
• 2012 Relegated to League 1
• 2013 Sisu declared they are going to build a new stadium in ‘the Coventry area’, but not in the City itself
• 2013 club went into Administration
• 2013 Sisu relocated the club to Northampton, approved by the Football League for a period of 3 to 5 years

• Today – CCFC has been described as a basket-case. Currently:

- The crisis continues to be played out in the courts and media, with the next phase being a Judicial Review Sisu has sought against the Council but that won’t happen for months
- Sisu continue to say they will build a new stadium but have not purchased land, engaged in discussions with planning authorities nor submitted a planning application
- Our owner is so secretive there is no publicly available photo of her so we don’t even know what she looks like
- The vast majority of City fans are boycotting games at Northampton and attendances there are hitting record lows with an average of around 2,000 including visiting fans, but there’s been a massive increase in numbers going to away games
- A generation of new football fans is being lost and the heart is being ripped out of our club
- There is no indication of when, if ever, we will return to Coventry

I wrote about the Coventry City saga in our fanzine King of the Kippax recently. It is truly shocking and I simply can't believe how the FA & Football League allowed this state of affairs to develop.

One of the reasons I highlighted it was that just before they bought Coventry, Ranson & SISU were sniffing around us but the chairman wouldn't entertain the idea. Looks like that was a very good decision as they were clearly targetting clubs that didn't own their stadium.

I've signed and would encourage all other blues to do the same.

Edit: I've moved this into a separate topic.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Re: Leeds Thread (Merged)

Most people blame our owners, the Sisu hedge fund, and many people suspect their actions over the last two years are all about trying to get ownership of the Ricoh Arena on the cheap.

The Coventry City saga makes Lord of the Rings look short, but here goes –
• Until the mid 1990s we were well run and solvent
• 1996 a new chairman decided to ‘have a punt’ on success
• 2001 relegated from the Premiership with something like £60 million debt
• 2005 after more crises moved from our Highfield Road ground to the Ricoh Arena as tenants with the Arena owned by ACL (Arena Coventry Limited), a joint venture between Coventry City Council and a local Charity
• 2007 CCFC was taken over by Sisu, a hedge fund
• 2010 with the global financial crisis hitting Sisu hard, Sisu’s owner Joy Seppala took direct control
• 2012 Sisu declared the rent being paid to ACL was too high and stopped paying it
• 2012 Relegated to League 1
• 2013 Sisu declared they are going to build a new stadium in ‘the Coventry area’, but not in the City itself
• 2013 club went into Administration
• 2013 Sisu relocated the club to Northampton, approved by the Football League for a period of 3 to 5 years

• Today – CCFC has been described as a basket-case. Currently:

- The crisis continues to be played out in the courts and media, with the next phase being a Judicial Review Sisu has sought against the Council but that won’t happen for months
- Sisu continue to say they will build a new stadium but have not purchased land, engaged in discussions with planning authorities nor submitted a planning application
- Our owner is so secretive there is no publicly available photo of her so we don’t even know what she looks like
- The vast majority of City fans are boycotting games at Northampton and attendances there are hitting record lows with an average of around 2,000 including visiting fans, but there’s been a massive increase in numbers going to away games
- A generation of new football fans is being lost and the heart is being ripped out of our club
- There is no indication of when, if ever, we will return to Coventry

I wrote about the Coventry City saga in our fanzine King of the Kippax recently. It is truly shocking and I simply can't believe how the FA & Football League allowed this state of affairs to develop.

One of the reasons I highlighted it was that just before they bought Coventry, Ranson & SISU were sniffing around us but the chairman wouldn't entertain the idea. Looks like that was a very good decision as they were clearly targetting clubs that didn't own their stadium.

I've signed and would encourage all other blues to do the same.

Do you want me to move this into a separate topic?

Good idea.
Signed, and the best of luck to the other sky blues.
Leeds, however, can get taken over by a crack dealer and placed in receivership for all I care, and a car park built on what used to be Elland Road.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

For more background, here's the KOTK article I wrote:

The other Sky Blues

It’s one thing laughing about how bad things are in Stretford, but down in the Midlands there’s nothing to laugh about regarding Coventry City. The old Highfield Road was my first away game if I remember rightly, plus they play in Sky Blue so I’ve always had a certain affection for them. They also accompanied us (along with Bradford City) in our last fall into the lower leagues in 2001. We came back from that but they never have. There’s also the involvement of former City player Ray Ranson.

In 2005, they moved from Highfield Road to the newly-built Ricoh Stadium. They didn’t own this; it was jointly owned by Coventry Council and the Higgs Trust, under the name ACL (Arena Coventry Limited). Somewhat similar to ourselves, the football club were tenants and allegedly paying £1.2m a year. However Coventry ran into financial difficulties in 2007, burdened with £38m of debt and unable to meet transfer payments. This led to a transfer embargo. Administration seemed likely but with just minutes to spare they concluded a deal with Ray Ranson and a hedge fund called SISU. This may ring some bells with City fans as Ranson was trying to buy us around the same time. Put simply, hedge funds manage investments on behalf of others and attempt to produce above-average returns but investments can be high-risk. Like others that knew little about football, SISU presumably thought that the £11 they paid (yes that’s not a typo; it’s really eleven pounds) plus the £10m they injected, were a small price to pay for the prospect of getting their hands on the PL’s riches.

However that wasn’t to be and in 2011, they were in trouble but survived. At that time, SISU tried to renegotiate the terms of the lease with ACL but didn’t get what they wanted. So they simply stopped paying rent from April 2012. As a result, Coventry City were put into administration in June 2013. They were sold to a company called Otium Entertainment but this was simply another arm of SISU and the stand-off with ACL continued. With no intention of paying even the more generous terms offered by ACL, Coventry’s owners announced they would be playing their home games at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium, some 30-plus miles away. Amazingly the Football League agreed to this, which was a decision that earned them a fair bit of criticism.

Most Coventry fans have boycotted the new arrangement and they are in the unique position of getting more fans at away games than at “home” games. There is a deep suspicion that, by starving ACL of funds, SISU are trying to get their hands on the Ricoh Arena, and the land around it, on the cheap. This suspicion has been hardened since SISU refused even a rent-free arrangement, which would have them only having to meet match-day costs. There is a complicated web of companies involved in owning Coventry City and some of you may remember the dispute about the owners putting one company into administration but claiming it wasn’t the football club. This would have meant they shouldn’t have to suffer the mandatory points deduction but the authorities were having none of that and they started their first ever season in League One with a ten-point handicap.

Under latest manager Steven Pressley, they’re actually doing quite well and would have been in the play-off places if it hadn’t been for the 10 point deduction. It’s yet another salutary lesson in how the football authorities seem completely toothless in the face of severe threats to the clubs they’re supposed to be protecting. Incidentally, Ranson left Coventry some time ago, following allegations he was also involved in the running of Cardiff City. There but for the grace of god….

 

[aguero93:20]

Dislike any dodgy owners apart from Uncle Malc and his brood so I'll sign.

 

[Anonymous]

Good luck with this SkyBlue Jim. A lass I used to work with back in the 90s was a huge Cov fan. I also have very fond memories of Highfield Road as it was always had a great day out (I know others disagree!). Cannot believe what they've been allowed to get away with.

All the best mate.

 

[Paul Lake's Left Knee]

Signed, terrible situation, one there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to either.

 

[Anonymous]

Forgot to say "signed" :)

 

[bluevengence]

done