Football Governance - Coventry City (and others)

 

In order to bring to light the problem with football governance Cov fans, and those of many other clubs, are demanding an enquiry by the UK government.

A petition is underway to have the issue considered by a Parliamentary Select Committee, with an obligation to do so if it reaches 100,000 signatures.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/59884


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, so please forward to family and friends in the UK, and of course please sign up yourself if UK based. This is not about club allegencies, but how the game is run (and not just in the UK) - it could happen to any club, at any time.

For those not aware of the background to the CCFC situation the extract below is as short hand as it gets.

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

Please follow this link for more info.

http://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threads/42063-The-Official-Petition-Thread 

 

 

 

Many thanks, and feel free to pm me

 

All the best

Neil

Other clubs are and will suffer in a similar fashion, look at Leeds new owner - a convicted fraudster, Wimbledon, Cardiff, Hull and the Glazers at Man Utd (dunoing debt aon the club to serve investors)

 

Football has indeed gone to sh*t.

 

A bill to give football clubs special status community assets would be the final aim i assume. It could prevent the displacement of clubs and situations like MK Franchise FC.

 

 

If it gets over 10000 votes the relevant dept will have to give a response.

 

The club in legal terms belongs to the owners of course, but the club isn't the owners  - they come and go - it is the fans. Most Cov fans, and in fact fans of most clubs, have a direct association with the city and therefore the community, or links through historic family associations - in other words we pass it on to the next generation. My old man came over from Dublin at 17 and followed the club for the rest of his life - same for his kids, and hopefully for mine. We do not belong in Northampton we belong in Coventry.

 

Anyway looking forward to supporting the team (not the owners) tomorrow along with 4,000 others at Notts County. We haven't given up yet!

 

The vast majority of fans we have come into contact with have been supportive, as demostrated by the Arsenal fans applauding our peaceful protest at the cup game 2 weeks ago.

 

Guess we will beg to differ - no problem, this thread is not a winge, merely an ask of fellow fans of the game to show some support.

No worries. Our situation is complex, but it really down to the fundemantal issues of fans being treated so badly by various owners (and like yourselves, we've had plenty of those), and the FA/FL doing nothing about it - depsite all the  noises they make about being for the fans etc..

 

There's a lot of focus on other fans forums, and one of the Leeds forums has been excellent. You have had to put with plenty over the last few years.