‘We appreciated the fans who did go in, but we also understood the fans who didn’t.’
Asked about his overriding feelings over the situation retrospectively, he said: ‘I feel a little bit sad when I look back on it, that’s probably the best way to describe it.
‘I missed a full season playing at the Ricoh in front of the fans. Your football career is only very short. I would have loved to have spent that year playing at the Ricoh. But it wasn’t to be.
‘I would like to think it could have been avoided. We didn’t find out too much inside information.
‘Everything can be avoided. The impression we had was that it was a clash of heads at the top between Sisu and the council and the club and ACL.
‘It sounded like they were all being childish, threw their teddies out the pram and weren’t even willing to negotiate or sit down and come up with a solution.
‘I always felt it was going to get sorted. I could never imagine Coventry City not playing at the Ricoh or not playing at home. In my opinion, the club was too big for that and too well supported for that. It’s crazy that it actually got to the stage where it did happen.
‘But I would like to think it could have been resolved. If people look back now, I’m sure they will admit that they’ve made mistakes and I’m sure they wish they had maybe sat around a table and bashed something out.
‘I don’t think anyone won at the end of it. Nobody came out of it on top and nobody was happy about the whole situation of ending up at Sixfields.’
For Sky Blues defender Jordan Clarke, the move to Sixfields had a bigger impact than it did for the vast majority of the club’s senior players. Clarke is a Coventry kid, with a long list of family members who are dedicated club supporters.
He revealed the move even meant his mum felt she couldn’t come and watch her own son play for his home-town club.
He said: ‘My family are all Coventry City fans. My dad came to every game but my mum didn’t go. She used to go to the Ricoh but she wouldn’t go to Northampton.
‘It was a bit of a protest and a bit because it was so far away. She thought, “they’re taking the p***”
‘She thought, “I’ve got to travel god knows how long to see my son play for a professional side which has been forced out of its home ground.”
‘At times, we were told by the club not to talk about the situation too much to family members and so on. But at times, I don’t think certain stuff got revealed to us anyway.’
Asked when he had first heard that the club might have to leave Coventry, he said: ‘It was around about the time everybody else started to hear about it, but obviously we found out a little bit before the public through in-house stuff.
‘The players initially were more worried about means of getting to each game. The players who lived in Coventry had an easy task in getting to the Ricoh, but driving to Sixfields we didn’t know if travel would be sorted out or whatnot.
‘The players were frustrated, I was. We were going from the Ricoh, which was a great stadium with good facilities and an all round feel-good home ground, to a foreign ground we knew nothing about.
‘The stadium obviously wasn’t up to the same level as the Ricoh, but once we got over that I think everything about the move was pretty seamless.’
Clarke said he tried to focus on the football rather than the off-field distractions.
He said: ‘None of us really understood the financial side of things or the decisions above us.
‘We had heard from staff around the place and reading the media coverage, but other than that we didn’t really pay much attention.
‘Our job was to concentrate on the football. At the time, we didn’t really have too much of an idea as to why we were doing it. Most of the players at the time were against it.
‘The first game felt like a reserve game, an under-21s type game. It’s an away ground to us and a ground in a league below.
‘After that it was just a case of, “we’re still playing the same teams and we have a job to do”.’
The versatile defender said he also believed that young players had benefited from the time at Sixfields, despite the obvious disruption it caused in other areas of the club.
He said: ‘I believe playing at Sixfields was a help to all the players because playing at the Ricoh there’s a really big pitch and the crowd is quite far away from you.
‘Because the Ricoh is so big a ground and we don’t fill it, you could hear pretty much everything and for me, personally, after a while I preferred to play at Northampton.
‘We just got used to it and it felt like a little bit of pressure was off, to be honest.’
He added: ‘Internally and in the changing rooms, everything seemed fine. It was just a case of we are playing games somewhere else.
‘I can’t remember anyone saying they wanted to leave because we are changing grounds. At the time, we were still at the same level. But I don’t know if it put anyone off joining.’
Clarke also said the players backed those who stayed away from games or protested and hit out at those responsible for taking the club out of Coventry.
He said: ‘We noticed the protests on the hill every game. I certainly did, anyway.
‘Before the start of each game, we would turn around and see them all up there. I was thinking they’ve probably got the best seats!
‘But we’ve seen them all the time and they always seemed to be in good spirits. It was all for a good cause in getting us back to the Ricoh.
‘We were pleased with it.’
He added: ‘I think the whole situation could have been avoided. I don’t know what the hierarchy at the club, and the people who owned the club, what their end goal is or was.
‘For me, knowing what I did know, it was definitely avoidable and I think it was a bit petty, to be honest.
‘It should never have happened.’
Chapter 13
#BringCityHome
WHILE Coventry’s season ticked along 35 miles away in Northampton, there was also plenty of manoeuvring behind the scenes.
During autumn 2013 there were open letters, private letters, private meetings, public statements and much more between the owners of Coventry City FC and council officials. Council officials were apparently attempting to persuade Sisu to allow the club to return to the Ricoh Arena, but the owners appeared to be adamant that the club could never return as tenants. Furthermore, there now appeared to be a suggestion that only the unencumbered freehold sale of the Ricoh Arena would pave the way for the Sky Blues’ return to Coventry. This was a step up from previous talks over merely securing a stake in the Ricoh Arena operating company. Now they wanted the bricks, mortar and land of the arena, which had cost £113m to build.
This was an apparently extreme bargaining position from which Sisu chief Joy Seppala insisted she would not move, and that the club would rather push ahead with its plans for a new stadium than return on a rental basis.
In a rare media interview, Ms Seppala explained her stance to the Coventry Telegraph.
She said: ‘It’s up to them [the council] to decide what their best offer looks like.
‘The club needs 100 per cent ownership of the freehold of the Ricoh. If you look back at the history of the club, you can see why this is important.
‘I don’t posture. I always tell people what it is I need. I don’t go for wasting time in negotiations.
‘There is no way we would go back to a rental deal. As I have said to the Football League when they asked recently if we would do a temporary arrangement, it would be irrational to return on an interim basis where I have any exposure to Coventry City Council whatsoever.
‘The league chairman Greg Clarke has said it is not for the league to dictate what stadium a club plays in, or on what terms.
‘Realistically, this council don’t think they can work with me. I know I cannot work with them. It doesn’t mean I can’t negotiate a deal. But I am not going to risk my investors’ money by exposing
us to the potential of having a repeat of what happened over the last year.
‘Would I be open to listening to what they have to say? I would. That is strictly for the fans. I feel empathy for the fans’ position. It is not fair what’s being done to them. They haven’t deserved what’s happened to the club over the last 12 months.
‘But everything we’ve done is to implement a long-term strategy that will see the viability of this club for the long term.
‘From the moment a decision was made for a joint venture with the council for the Ricoh Arena [in 2003], the club lost control.
‘It would be crazy from a business perspective to go back to the Ricoh without full control. All the money that’s been put into this club would be put at risk again.
‘When the former owners of the club sold the 50 per cent share to Higgs [Alan Edward Higgs Charity], I do not believe they thought they were giving away match day revenues. They thought they had sold the equity stake in the stadium, not the revenues.’
Despite Joy Seppala’s comments here, you may remember in Chapter One that Coventry City Council’s John McGuigan and long-term club board member Geoffrey Robinson seemed to indicate the club knew exactly what they were getting into during the sale of the stake in ACL –and had been specifically warned about the revenue issue. The facts seem to suggest the club simply didn’t have an alternative at the point they sold their share in ACL if the Ricoh Arena project was to be delivered and if the club were going to avoid administration in 2003.
There was obvious anger and frustration among supporters that their club had been moved out of their home city and that a compromise couldn’t be reached at the Ricoh Arena, but Joy Seppala insisted that the owners had acted in the best interests of the football club.
The ‘devout Christian’ said she had received hate mail, including e-mails containing words such as ‘die’ and ‘bitch’. Despite the abuse, she said she had taken time to respond to more constructive e-mails from fans.
She said: ‘Would I have preferred to stay at the Ricoh? Of course. Would I have preferred to reach a deal with the council? Of course. That’s why we agreed to the heads of terms [for the Higgs share last year]. But for whatever reason, they patently refused to authorise that purchase.
‘We have made decisions which we believe are emphatically the right decisions and we’re in the right place. We’re taking the club in the right direction, bar the emotional angst it’s given to fans. Emotions are not lost on us. I feel very bad. Football is like a religion.
‘The long-term viability of the club depends on us doing this. If the status quo continued, Coventry City would not be here in a year or two.’
But Joy Seppala’s comments in the press appeared to do little to smooth relations with the council. Coventry City Council leader Ann Lucas reacted by issuing a public statement which said the council was willing to discuss stadium ownership with Sisu but that ‘time was running out’.
She said: ‘All options are available for discussion. I am prepared to discuss, subject to contract, and without prejudice to the on-going court case, the issue of stadium ownership with Joy Seppala, just as I have been prepared to discuss stadium ownership with other interested third parties in the past.
‘If this matter cannot be resolved by the turn of the year, then I and all of my colleagues on the Labour group on Coventry City Council will look to put in place a process which ensures the best possible deal for the people of Coventry in relation to the Ricoh Arena.
‘‘So for one last time, I say, quite clearly, that I am prepared to meet with Joy Seppala and to have a discussion with her without prejudice and subject to contract in relation to all and any issues in relation to the Ricoh Arena, the land around it, and Coventry City Football Club.’
The significance of this statement was probably missed at the time, including by the media. The ‘other interested parties’ line seemed like nothing more than posturing at the time. Now, of course, we know there was one extremely interested party – Wasps Rugby Football Club.
But, at the time, all the public signs seemed to suggest ACL was desperately scratching around for ways to recover the £1.3m it had lost in revenue following the termination of Coventry City’s licence to use the stadium.
During an interview with newly appointed ACL chairman Chris Robinson shortly after these public statements, it was revealed the stadium could even look to play host to Coventry Speedway.
Aside from the odd charity football match, the stadium bowl’s major event of summer 2014 was a streaking contest organised by a microwaveable burger firm and judged by members of the cast from The Only Way is Essex. Really, I’m not joking – this actually happened.
The stadium was even struggling to attract the major music gigs it had staged in the past, and the company was clearly struggling as staff numbers shrank.
ACL director Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen even told me the firm had looked at playing host to monster trucks to fill the void left by the Coventry City.
Non-executive director Mark Labovitch was always very keen to emphasise how badly the Ricoh business was performing during this period. He pointed towards big payments from the casino operators and the naming rights sponsors in the early days, which had been averaged out over proceeding years to make the numbers in the accounts look more promising.
He was, of course, right.
During this period, I asked Mr Labovitch directly if the club wanted ACL to fold.
He said: ‘It’s none of our business, we want to run a football club.
‘It would help it they were not there.’
It’s apparent now that a waiting game was being played to see who could hold out the longest: ACL on reduced stadium revenues or the club on reduced income and falling attendances? Council officials continued to talk up ACL’s business performance and club bosses their own and so the wait went on as stadium discussions fell away yet again.
In December 2013, the club was offered a deal by ACL which would have apparently seen it return to the Ricoh Arena rent free until the end of the season – and £100,000 for each of the next two seasons if they remained in League One.
But the club complained the proposal failed to offer the loss-making club any vital stadium revenues, and would still have seen them paying other match day costs totalling £320,000 a year.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph at the time, Mark Labovitch said: ‘We have made it clear that no club can have a viable financial future unless it owns its own stadium.
‘There is no prospect of us returning to the former landlord/tenant relationship with ACL, a company which bled the club dry for many years over two generations of owners, and wilfully sought to damage the club with actions which led to needless points deductions over the last two seasons.
‘Such inexplicable actions have severely damaged our promotion chances. It is a credit to Steven Pressley and the players that so much of the damage caused by ACL has been made good.
‘Joy’s door is open to Ann for further discussions. But we would have to be clear this time that it would be a discussion about stadium ownership.
‘In the absence of a clear commitment to discuss ownership, we are pressing ahead with the plans for our new stadium on the outskirts of Coventry.’
An ACL spokesman responded: ‘A further attempt to bring the Sky Blues home to Coventry was made recently by Arena Coventry Limited.
‘A rent-free offer, with the club only paying match day costs, was made via the Football League, who offered to act as brokers to a deal.
‘The offer was made on the basis that the club could come back to Coventry immediately and then negotiations of a more permanent settlement could begin again in earnest. At present, no formal response has been received.
‘ACL would, of course, welcome the Sky Blues back to their home stadium and are available to do so at short notice. We have an open-door policy on discussions to achieve this and will make every effort to do so if called upon.’
In Januar
y 2014, the Sky Blue Army vented their frustration in high-profile fashion.
Supporters who travelled to The Emirates for Coventry City’s FA Cup fourth-round clash with Premier League Arsenal drew national attention to the club’s plight with a powerful visual protest.
Led by the Keep Cov in Cov protest group, fans held signs with the word ‘why’ aloft on 35 minutes – symbolising the distance the club had been moved from the Ricoh Arena to play ‘home’ matches.
While the team might not have made much of an impact, eventually succumbing to a 4-0 defeat, the fans certainly did. Their pain and anguish was broadcast into the living rooms of fellow football supporters across the country.
The situation at Coventry City finally boiled over in March 2014, when Coventry City chief executive Tim Fisher was attacked by fans in a London pub after a match.
About 20 supporters were said to have been involved in the incident, which occurred as Mr Fisher went to use the bar’s toilet. He was apparently pelted with drinks and chairs as he waited for a train following the team’s 3-1 defeat away at Brentford.
The attack was roundly condemned by the vast majority of supporters and it later emerged that other fans had attempted to intervene.
Mr Fisher escaped serious injury and the matter was not reported to police.
One supporter who witnessed the incident was Juggy Chima.
He said Mr Fisher had offered to buy supporters a drink before the trouble flared up.
He added: ‘There must have been about 25 or 20 City fans in there, some we see quite often and a few that we had never seen before.
‘Everyone is having a drink and then suddenly Tim Fisher walks in and went the toilet. Where the toilets were, you had to go right through the pub to get to the toilets.
‘At first, when he went in, sort of a buzz went up “that’s Tim Fisher.”‘
He added: ‘Obviously people have had a drink. Where he came out of the toilets, there was a bit of singing going on, ‘we want Sisu out’ and all that.
‘The guy had actually given somebody some money to say get everybody a drink.
Coventry City Page 21