‘The club owners have been on rent strike. They say they are fighting for a more realistic settlement for a League One club, while Arena Coventry Limited, jointly owned by the city council and the Alan Higgs Charity, believe the agenda has been to destabilise the Arena Company and thereby gain control at a fire sale price. A much lowered rent has been offered but the dispute goes on.’
But, during a candid interview for this book, Mr Ainsworth said he had not always opposed Sisu’s ownership and had initially tried to support them.
He said: ‘The first person to contact me from the club was John Clarke [CCFC board member]. I think he contacted me because he had heard my view was that the Ricoh Arena should be sold.
‘We met over coffee. I thought at one point he was going to offer me a place on the board or something, but he soon realised that I wasn’t even a Sky Blues fan.
‘I was then invited to the directors’ dining room for lunch and a game by Rajay Naik who is a member of the Labour Party [and was a CCFC advisory board member].
‘Onye Igwe was in charge then, but he never even spoke to me. It appeared to me set up so Mark Labovitch [then non-executive director] could speak to me.
‘Over lunch with Labovitch, I made my position as clear as I could. I was not predisposed to side with Sisu, a hedge fund, but I thought the Ricoh was underperforming and would do better in the private sector, but a reasonable offer would have to be on the table if I was to get involved.
‘I thought the rent was too high and that the council ought to get rid.
‘If they had something sensible to say, I might well be on their side. But the Ricoh represented a substantial taxpayer investment and the community were entitled to see some return.’
He added: ‘I then asked and met Joy Seppala, the decision maker in my view. She came to my House of Commons office with Tim Fisher, Mark Labovitch and Rajay Naik. I made it clear that if she thought I was going to take on my friends, my council and my community for a hedge fund, I wasn’t.
‘I said, “make an offer that I can support. If a straightforward cash offer is difficult for whatever reason, make a clear proposition on a way forward, something solid you can take to the bank, as the Yanks say.”
‘I thought the meeting broke up with her agreeing to do this but, despite further exchanges of letters, I never got the kind of clear proposal I was hoping for.
‘After that, I decided that Sisu were not an organisation I wanted to have anything to do with.’
I asked more about his view that the Ricoh Arena should be sold and that the council should not be involved in its operation.
He said: ‘After the Ricoh was built and, to my mind, was not fulfilling its potential I asked officers and members of the council, “are you open in principal to selling this?” It’s not the job of local government to run football stadiums. That’s not what people pay their taxes for.
‘I was in favour of getting rid, and thought the council would be in a stronger position in the developing row with the club if they made a statement that they were willing to sell to the right people at the right price. But they were totally opposed.
‘For John Mutton [then council leader] and George Duggins [then deputy leader], it seemed to me that selling was not up for debate.
‘I said to a number of councillors that if they wanted someone to invest real money in the football club, that kind of person would want to own the whole train set. Nobody would invest millions to become a partner of the council.
‘Tony Blair’s big breakthrough in the Northern Ireland peace process was when he said ‘Britain has no strategic interest in maintaining power in Northern Ireland, it’s up to the people.’
‘That brought a lot of momentum toward peace. He was saying “we, Britain, don’t need to own this forever.”
‘They could have made a statement which said they were not adamant about retaining ownership of the Ricoh, that it was about what’s good for the economy and the football club. We are prepared to sell on the right terms.
‘With some members of the council, asking them to sell was like asking Gollum to give up the ring.
‘You can understand it in some ways. They had seen it come up out of the ground.’
One strange twist of the internal wrangling going on between the club and ACL came in May 2013 and saw the club’s groundsman, John Ledwidge, defect to the stadium firm from the club after funding for pitch maintenance had been pulled by the Sky Blues, who continued to insist they wouldn’t need the stadium or the playing surface for the 2013/14 campaign.
ACL, however, seemingly still believed the club would return in time for the new season.
A statement from the stadium company said: ‘We’re really pleased that John has agreed to join us. He’s already worked alongside us for several years, so this was a natural move for both John and the ACL team.
‘The pitch is a key asset and feature of the Ricoh Arena and we have set money aside to ensure it is in prime condition come the start of the football season in August.
‘When that time arrives, we hope very much that the Sky Blues will be playing on the turf John’s going to be in charge of maintaining in the weeks and months ahead, here at their rightful home at the Ricoh Arena in the city of Coventry.’
But Tim Fisher continued to accuse ACL of slamming the Ricoh Arena door in the club’s face.
In May 2013, he told the Coventry Telegraph: ‘ACL refused to negotiate a sensible exit strategy – effectively a longer version of the three-game deal we did last season.’
He added: ‘We believe the conduct of the council was motivated not by what was in the best interests of the club but by a desire to wrest control of the club from Sisu.
‘By providing state aid, any incentive for ACL to accept a market rate for the club’s use of the stadium has disappeared and this has led directly to the club moving to its own stadium.’
In June 2013, ACL made an offer that seemingly could not be refused. Stadium bosses said the club could continue to play at the Ricoh Arena without rent and in exchange for costs being covered.
A statement released by ACL said: ‘The directors of Arena Coventry Limited have been deeply concerned with how the emotions of Coventry City Football Club supporters have been tested over recent months and more especially the past few weeks.
‘These concerns were discussed in great detail at an ACL Board Meeting on 7 June 2013, and we have today notified the Football League and the joint administrators of a proposed solution for the coming season.
‘To enable the football club to fulfil its commitments under Football League regulations, and to provide stability whilst Coventry City Football Club Limited, which owns the league share, remains in administration, ACL has agreed to allow the club to play its home games free of any rental fee, therefore removing any need for the supporters to travel outside the city to watch home games.
‘All charges incurred on match day as a consequence of staging a football match will be passed through at cost, for example, stewarding, policing, utilities, frost protection, match day repairs to stadium, health, safety and compliance management and certification, service charges for maintenance contracts e.g. flood lights, generators etc.
‘Whilst these sums may vary depending on attendances, it should be noted that policing, stewarding and pitch maintenance have historically been directly managed and paid for by the club.
‘ACL also acknowledges that service-related charges can be verified if necessary by an independent external party.
‘Given ACL wishes to ensure it provides the best playing surface possible for all football league matches, it will now take direct responsibility for future management and maintenance of the pitch.
‘The directors of ACL hope the supporters of Coventry City Football Club, the joint administrators and the Football League will view this as a positive and productive move, and should assist in dispelling the uncertainty and upset of the past weeks.’
But the deal was flatly rejecte
d by the club. Quite why has never really been explained, although access to stadium revenues was a repeated sticking point during this period.
It would be the first of many opportunities for a return to be dismissed.
In the context of the court judgments which covered this period, it would be easy to conclude that withdrawing the club’s business from the Ricoh Arena completely was yet another attempt to distress ACL with a view to securing a stake in the firm at a reduced rate.
During this time, Tim Fisher was asked by the Coventry Telegraph: ‘Have your business tactics over the past year been designed to bankrupt ACL so you can attempt to wrest control of the Ricoh Arena?’
He said: ‘In an attempt to put both the club and ACL on a sound financial footing, we had a series of meetings in 2012 aimed at resolving the financial difficulties facing both parties.
‘As part of this, we reached agreement with the council to buy out the ACL debt in return for a half share in the stadium business and extension of ACL’s lease to 125 years, which means it remains 100 per cent council-owned. We would just access the revenues, which is crucial.
‘This deal was documented, signed by all parties and then reneged on by the council. The council made the problem even worse by then using public funds, something that is now subject to the judicial review proceedings.
‘We need to be very clear that this is not about ownership of the freehold in the stadium, which would have continued to be held by the council, with the club taking back the 50 per cent interest in head-leaseholder ACL, which it was always intended to have.
‘We believe the conduct of the council was motivated, not by what was in the best interests of the club, but by a desire to wrest control of the club from Sisu.
‘We have always wanted this to be a mutually beneficial partnership instead of an outdated agreement that is more likely to lead to mutual self-destruction.’
The Sky Blues were rapidly accelerating on a path which would take them away from their home city. It became apparent the club had made serious enquires about becoming the tenant of another club in the Midlands. The earlier front-runner appeared to be Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium. But it later emerged the club planned to move to to Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium, 35 miles and almost 45 minutes away by car from the Ricoh Arena.
The situation was critical, and the Coventry Telegraph acted to voice the concerns of Sky Blues fans everywhere.
The City Must Stay campaign was launched alongside a scathing editorial from then-editor Alun Thorne.
It read: ‘There are many people to blame for the mess Coventry City is in. Your beloved club has been badly run for years, long before Sisu rescued it from administration and pumped in millions of pounds to keep it afloat.
‘But in the end, it is the owners who have decided to take the club out of Coventry and away from its fans.
‘Many fans have long called for Sisu to go. Not the Telegraph. We have acknowledged it is their investors’ cash that has kept the club alive – no matter how badly it has been wasted in taking the club from the Championship to League One.
‘But now it is different. Sisu’s plan to take your club 35 miles away to Northampton for at least three years while they build a new stadium near, but outside, Coventry is utter madness and will tear the heart out of this city. As a newspaper, we cannot support an owner who is willing to do this.
‘It will leave the club – already a shadow of its proud former self – as a sham, a sick joke playing in front of the minority of fans who haven’t been alienated by this shameful soap opera. Coventry City have a home. It is in Coventry, not Northampton. It is called the Ricoh Arena. You may wish they were still at Highfield Road but that is long gone.
‘ACL have repeated their offer for the club to play at the Ricoh rent free – but paying match day costs – while they are in administration, so there is another option to Sixfields. There must surely still be a chance to find a compromise.
‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Ricoh row – and let’s be clear that neither side are faultless – the argument is almost irrelevant. Coventry City must play in Coventry.
‘Manager Steven Pressley said that he wants City to stay in Coventry and that he hoped a solution could be found. We share that view and hope that his bosses can give their bright young manager the fanbase he needs to push his team up the table towards promotion.
‘The current owners and custodians have told us that they have to move to safeguard the club’s future, that staying at the Ricoh doesn’t make financial sense. Fair enough, but more than 14,000 of you have signed our City Must Stay petition and the overwhelming majority of supporters at Sky Blues chief executive Tim Fisher’s forums told him they wouldn’t follow the club outside of Coventry. So what is the club without the fans?
‘Under Sisu, City’s average crowd in 2008/09 was 17,420. They lost millions of pounds. Gates have fallen every year but the losses have continued to pile up. Last season’s average gate was 10,973. Next season we’d guess it will be 2-3,000. Can anyone see the financial sense in that?
‘Fans have already started a Not One Penny More campaign, vowing not to spend any money with the club until they agree to play home games at the Ricoh Arena.
‘Is Northampton still making financial sense?
‘Of course, the club knew all of this before yesterday’s news about quitting Coventry for Northampton came out. But still they plough on. Mr Fisher has repeatedly said this is not a game of brinkmanship, that they have left the Ricoh for good.
‘Well, if Sisu won’t keep City in Coventry they should stand aside and let someone else do what is best for the club and its long-suffering supporters.
‘Administration has had one benefit for Sky Blues fans. It has shown that there are investors interested in buying the club. If these people are worthy owners of your club, then they must have figured out that they were never likely to be able to pick it up on the cheap from the administrator. They were always going to have to talk to Sisu.
‘If you want to buy the Sky Blues, do it now before it’s too late. Buy them now before the club is torn away from a generation of fans.
‘Pick up the phone and make Joy Seppala an offer. And Joy, thanks for the £45m, the fans should be grateful for that. But if Sisu’s plan is truly to take it from the city that bears its name then the time has come to pass on the baton to new owners committed to keeping the Sky Blues where they belong.
‘City Must Stay.’
One person to add their backing to the campaign was former Coventry City chairman Peter Robins, the son of legendary Sky Blues chairman Derrick Robins.
Clearly unimpressed by the suggestion the club could be leaving the city, he said: ‘What a bizarre and outrageous situation that one should even have to sign a petition.
‘What on earth would my father and Jimmy Hill, who built this club, have to say?
‘I don’t think I could put into words what dad would have said. He wouldn’t have let it get to this stage in the first place but he would have been absolutely outraged that the club that he built with Jimmy is behaving in this bizarre and outrageous way. He’d be totally mortified.
‘I feel that my father’s legacy is being destroyed. He built an outstanding success and that has been destroyed over many years. I find it staggering.’
Despite a total of about 15,000 supporters eventually signing the petition to support the campaign, club officials stuck to their guns.
Supporters continued to push Tim Fisher for answers over the breakdown of talks with ACL designed to reach a compromise on rent and a share of match day revenues.
He said: ‘We realised that the business was nothing short of appalling.’
He added that the decision to launch a judicial review of the city council’s decision to buy out ACL’s debt from Yorkshire Bank was ‘£100,000 well spent’.
He said: ‘The cost of legals is way more than £100,000 and it’s travelling northwards at a rate of knots. What about the £100
,000 the council will have spent on this? How many jobs would that have saved?
‘The council are closing this centre and that centre, closing old people’s homes. I’m not sure that adds up.
‘The council have lost control of the situation and will do anything they can to stop the club moving on. The judicial review is very clear.
‘The claimant says that the defendants worked against the best interests of the club, worked in bad faith, tried to wrest control of the club.’
Little did Mr Fisher know at the time that the initial £100,000 was just the tip of the iceberg. Three years on, the legal battle continues and is now estimated to have cost well over £1m.
Mr Fisher also revealed that the Football League had given them a list of grounds they would approve as a temporary home.
He said: ‘At the moment, we are sharpening the pencil on the final agreement.’
He admitted that it was a commercial risk and that crowds would slump ‘between 6-7,000 if the team does really well, as low as 3,000 if it doesn’t.’
Mr Fisher said: ‘The numbers don’t look great but there is a real risk that this football club spirals down and down.
‘Unless you get to a sustainable model, there is no way this club will ever pick up. Why else would we do it?’
The estimation of crowds between 6-7,000 proved to be well wide of the mark, as did another prediction made by the club’s chief executive.
That summer, he told Coventry City London Supporters Club that ‘Sisu is a distressed debt fund and therefore batters people in court’.
For those of you keeping score, the hedge fund drew 0-0 with the charity and suffered a heavy defeat to Coventry City Council before losing again in a replay. At the time of writing, it’s seeking yet another replay.
On 8 July 2013, the news all Coventry City fans dreaded was finally confirmed. The Football League had rubber-stamped an application for the Sky Blues to ground share at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium for three years – with an option for a further two years. The club had also been forced to pay a £1m bond as an assurance that they would return to Coventry.
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