Coventry City
Football Club has been called a basket case and is in a complete mess
The club’s owner, the sisu hedge fund, decided in 2013 to leave CCFC’s home of eight years – the 32,500 capacity purpose built Ricoh Arena which also hosted 2012 Olympics football – and moved to Northampton saying it would be for 3-5 years while a new stadium would be built ‘in the Coventry area’. But no progress has been made with the new stadium and few people believe it will ever happen. Attendances at CCFC games in Northampton are at record lows and a generation of new fans is being lost. And despite going into Administration, the Club has millions of pounds of debt all owed to different parts of the sisu family of companies.
Most people blame our owners, the sisu hedge fund, for the mess we are in 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 are 10 key points
Today
While most people blame sisu for the current mess, sisu and a small minority blame acl and the Council.
As things stand, the Council has offered a short-term and greatly reduced rental offer for CCFC to return to the Ricoh so sisu could pick up the phone and say ‘yes’. But none of the parties involved, including the spineless Football League, have covered themselves in glory.
kcic will be launching a campaign for an Independent Inquiry to use Coventry as an example of problems facing football in this country, when owners can do pretty much what they want with no regard for the heritage and identity of a club or the interests of its supporters. For us it would also call to account all those responsible for the mess Coventry City is in and reveal the true facts of what has gone on.
The club’s owner, the sisu hedge fund, decided in 2013 to leave CCFC’s home of eight years – the 32,500 capacity purpose built Ricoh Arena which also hosted 2012 Olympics football – and moved to Northampton saying it would be for 3-5 years while a new stadium would be built ‘in the Coventry area’. But no progress has been made with the new stadium and few people believe it will ever happen. Attendances at CCFC games in Northampton are at record lows and a generation of new fans is being lost. And despite going into Administration, the Club has millions of pounds of debt all owed to different parts of the sisu family of companies.
Most people blame our owners, the sisu hedge fund, for the mess we are in 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 are 10 key points
- 1996 having been well run and with no financial
problems 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, 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 – March - club went into Administration
- 2013 – May - sisu declared they are going to
build a new stadium in ‘the Coventry area’, but not in the City itself
- 2013 – July - sisu relocated the club to
Northampton, approved by the Football League for a period of 3 to 5 years
Today
- The crisis continues to be played out in the
courts and media, with the next phase being a Judicial Review sisu has sought
against Coventry City Council
- 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
- 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
While most people blame sisu for the current mess, sisu and a small minority blame acl and the Council.
As things stand, the Council has offered a short-term and greatly reduced rental offer for CCFC to return to the Ricoh so sisu could pick up the phone and say ‘yes’. But none of the parties involved, including the spineless Football League, have covered themselves in glory.
kcic will be launching a campaign for an Independent Inquiry to use Coventry as an example of problems facing football in this country, when owners can do pretty much what they want with no regard for the heritage and identity of a club or the interests of its supporters. For us it would also call to account all those responsible for the mess Coventry City is in and reveal the true facts of what has gone on.