Coventry City

by Simon Gilbert

  ‘There was a split. Some people were singing and some people were fine saying, ‘the guy has just come in to use the toilet, just let him get on with it.’

  ‘As he was leaving, the chants went up and there were one or two trying to stop him from leaving the pub and then one or two were trying to push them out the way, just saying ‘let the guy go.’

  ‘There was no actual glasses or bottles thrown, but somebody threw some beer on him. And then there was a bit of a surge from two or three people and some stools went flying. He was jostled and he was manhandled, there’s no two ways about that.’

  He added: ‘When he got outside, Steve Waggott was waiting and the two of them made a sharp exit because, obviously, they don’t know how the situation is going to pan out – because everybody started to come out.

  ‘People were saying “go” because there had been a lot of beer drunk. This situation could have ended with someone getting a smack and then that’s really going to take it to another level.

  ‘The general consensus was that this is what happens when fans aren’t given their voice.’

  Emotions surrounding the club were obviously running high and the violence was not the ideal preparation as the club’s owners prepared for a court battle with the Higgs Charity a few weeks later.

  It was at this court hearing I had my first face-to-face encounter with Mr Fisher since I had joined the Coventry Telegraph. Whether he was unhappy with my report of the pub attack a week earlier, I’m not sure. But it’s fair to say he didn’t greet me in an overly friendly manner.

  Standing in the lobby of Birmingham High Court, he towered over me, pointed his finger in my face and said: ‘You know what I think of you.’

  My reply of ‘Actually Tim, I don’t, why don’t you tell me?’ probably didn’t help in hindsight – but that’s what happened.

  In fairness to Mr Fisher, it was evidently an extremely stressful time, and I’m not one to hold a grudge. There was also a half apology from him the following day in court, when we had a lengthy chat during a lunchtime break in which he issued some handy career advice.

  But I think it’s fair to say I’m still not his preferred contact in the press.

  As we know, the Higgs hearing ended in a 0-0 draw as the charity’s claim and Sisu’s counter-claim were both thrown out.

  But it wasn’t our last trip to court that year. In June 2014, we were back for the long-awaited judicial review into Coventry City Council’s £14.4m bail-out of Ricoh Arena firm ACL.

  There was more pettiness during this hearing and I saw ACL director Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen waving and blowing kisses to Mr Fisher from the opposite side of the courtroom at one point. Another example of the type of unnecessary antagonistic behaviour that had no doubt been displayed by all sides from time to time and led to the disgraceful situation of Coventry City being moved out of their home city.

  As the judicial review came to a close, Mark Labovitch said and did some bizarre things which I believe ultimately led to his demise and departure from club’s board.

  On the final day of the hearing, viewed by those at Sisu as arguably one of the most important days in the club’s history, Mr Labovitch sent his first-ever tweet from the courtroom – a comment taking the mickey out of my haircut.

  Now, admittedly, I have a history of bad haircuts. But this was hardly seen as the time or the place to be making jokes by others within the club’s hierarchy – or the fans.

  But what really did it for Mark Labovitch, in my opinion, was the interview he gave to then sports editor Keith Perry and I on the court steps.

  He said: ‘This is a side show that has nothing to do with the football club.

  ‘The city has a problem. The club isn’t playing in the city. There’s a problem that needs to be solved and this is not part of that solution. Is it going to be easier to get around the table now? I really don’t know. I hope so.’

  The suggestion that the expensive judicial review process was nothing more than ‘a side show’ clearly did not sit well with the club’s owners or others on the Coventry board. And there was no room for any suggestion he had been misquoted this time as two journalists had heard him use these words.

  Three months later, Mark Labovitch stepped down from the board as part of a reshuffle which also saw Tim Fisher move to the role of chairman and Steve Waggott take over as chief executive.

  The judicial review judgement has already been comprehensively covered in this book, so I won’t waste too much time explaining what happened after the hearing here. Suffice to say the council successfully defended the legal challenge and Sisu continues to appeal that decision through the courts at the time of writing.

  With the court action out of the way for the time being, focused shifted back on to Coventry City FC and how the club could be returned to its home city.

  Several protest groups had emerged during the dispute, including the anti-council Get Cov Back to the Ricoh group. A damp squib of a protest outside the council’s Earl Street base attracted a handful of supporters as the group announced it would be fielding a candidate in the forthcoming local elections against council leader Ann Lucas.

  But former councillor Brian Patton suffered a crushing defeat as he attracted just 235 votes – finishing fifth out of the six candidates in the ward and 1,727 votes behind councillor Lucas.

  Other fans continued to do what they could to force a return, and at the start of July 2014 a campaign group called Keep Cov in Cov, led by supporter Michael Orton, tabled an offer to pay the club’s rent at the Ricoh Arena for three years. The group had attracted support from local businessmen – including former vice-chairman Gary Hoffman – and said it would only seek to be reimbursed once attendances at the Ricoh Arena topped 5,000.

  But Tim Fisher rejected the suggestion out of hand.

  He said: ‘I’m sure Michael Orton’s motivations are well meaning but these discussions have never been about rent.

  ‘The discussion is around revenues. This club needs to control and manage its match day revenues. That is not in his gift.

  ‘If there were an interim deal on the table, do you not think we would pay the rent?

  ‘We don’t need anybody to pay the rent.

  ‘We are fully aware of the local businessman behind this. He is part of the problem, not the solution.’

  The club had just spent an entire season at an alien ground and the thought of the club’s fans having to face another season watching their club die a slow and painful death from afar was harrowing.

  At this time I knew there was an important meeting coming up, a chance to apply some pressure on all the parties involved and move closer to finally ending this Sixfields nightmare.

  In August 2014 ACL, Coventry Council, Higgs Charity and club officials would get together at the Football League’s headquarters in London.

  The summit was to discuss the settlement of a £470,000 bill the club had to pay ACL as a result of the administration of CCFC Ltd.

  Sisu appeared to be digging their heels in over paying the bill and it was a clear barrier to any possible return to the Ricoh Arena.

  They had argued that £300,000 ACL had received from former chairman Geoffrey Robinson and Mike McGinnity should be deducted from the bill. The pair had acted as rent guarantors for CCFC and had been successfully pursed for £150,000 each as the rent row escalated.

  Geoffrey Robinson said he believed the guarantees should have disappeared with the sale to Sisu in 2007.

  He told me: ‘It should have been extinguished at the time we did the sale to Sisu.

  ‘We both thought it was, it was a failure on our part – and of our lawyers – to ensure that it was terminated. It was an oversight.

  ‘But they didn’t have any hesitation in coming after us, despite everything we’d lost. Mike had lost a million or two.

  ‘It was legal, but did it reflect the spirit of the whole thing? No, it was very mean.

  ‘We just paid up. Mike said “I can’t go
through a court case, Geoffrey, settle” – so I settled. He and I have remained firm friends right through to the end.’

  Speaking to me at the time about being forced to hand over the money, the late Mr McGinnity said: ‘I’m absolutely disgusted. To say I’m disappointed in the current situation at the club is an understatement.

  ‘We hoped it would go from strength to strength but that wasn’t the case.

  ‘At the time, we thought the Sisu takeover was right. It’s a disgrace. I hate to think what they are losing now.

  ‘What’s the point in building another stadium when they have a perfectly good one where serious adults could sit down and work something out?

  ‘Sir Derek Higgs must be turning in his grave. None of this would have happened if he’d still been alive, I’m certain of that.

  ‘I’m absolutely fed up to the back teeth of it and I feel extremely sorry for the fans.’

  He added: ‘Would I do anything differently? Most certainly; I wouldn’t get involved.

  ‘It has cost me a lot of money and Geoffrey ten times as much.’

  With the Football League meeting approaching, I emphasised my feelings to the then-editor Alun Thorne and sports editor Keith Perry that this was the time to strike if we wanted to have a real impact on the situation. But we couldn’t do it alone.

  Any campaign would have to be fan-led, with the Coventry Telegraph providing the platform and support necessary to make sure the message reached those who needed to hear it.

  The idea of a campaign had already been suggested by Keith and Alun came up with the name - #BringCityHome.

  In July 2014, the Coventry Telegraph launched the campaign, and I took the lead on the editorial side.

  The paper encouraged fans to take pictures with the #BringCityHome slogan and a giant billboard was sent to the headquarters of all the key players – including the London offices of Sisu and the Football League as well as Coventry Council House and the Ricoh Arena.

  The message was simple ‘Enough is enough. The time has long since passed for Coventry City to come home.’

  Another protest march was organised by the Sky Blue Trust and attracted more fans than the first, underlining that – while their club might have gone away – the Sky Blue Army’s passion for their club never left.

  But the true pressure to resolve the situation would come from the political arena.

  Every MP in Coventry and Warwickshire pledged their support to our campaign, along with celebrities from the world of sport and television.

  Crucially, I had previously established contact with Conservative MP Damian Collins, who was leading the calls for the reformation of football.

  He had previously been scathing in his criticism of Sisu and the Football League.

  In March 2014, he told me: ‘The owners of Coventry City have run the club into the ground. It is an absolute disgrace what they have done there and it should not be allowed to happen again.’

  He added: ‘We have to stop private individuals running clubs into the ground.

  ‘Coventry City is probably the most stark example in the country of just how bad the situation is at the moment.’

  ‘At Coventry City, we don’t even know who owns the club. Anyone who owns any stake in the club has to be published.

  ‘I don’t think it’s right that fans don’t who the owners of their club are. There are many reasons why fans would want to know that.

  ‘We want to know where they have come from and what their motivation is.’

  ‘The reason Coventry have left is because of the financial situation the club has got itself into.

  ‘It should be a matter for the FA to determine whether a club should be able to move away. A club and its ground should be locked together.

  ‘It should not be allowed to happen where we have a situation like Coventry’s where the team plays miles away from their home city.’

  Knowing about Mr Collins’ passion for reformation, I saw an opportunity to apply pressure on the Football League. If the club’s owners did not pay the £470,000 they had been ordered to through the administration procedure, it would call into question the controversial ‘football creditors rule’ – which allows other members of the football family to be paid ahead of any other creditors when a club becomes insolvent.

  Mr Collins was campaigning to scrap this rule already, as were HMRC. I flagged up the situation at the club to both Mr Collins and HMRC shortly before the crucial meeting to see what the impact would be if a resolution was not found.

  Mr Collins said: ‘This could be a prime example of the failure of the football creditors rule and a prompt for action.

  ‘I am monitoring the situation. It will be a concern if the stadium doesn’t get that money and the club walks away.

  ‘I think the Football League has to order the club to pay the full amount. It is money the club fairly owes. They entered into the agreement and they should honour it.

  ‘There is no justification for the football creditors rule. It is massively unfair on other creditors and the community and it encourages irresponsible financial behaviour.’

  He added: ‘Coventry is the worst example in football at the moment of the problems clubs can get into with poor ownership and the need for the FA and the Football League to intervene.

  ‘If governing bodies won’t act, they need to be forced to through legislation.

  ‘This situation is appalling. It underlines that Sisu should never have been allowed to take over the club and run it the way they have done.

  ‘They are an example of how a bad owner can destroy a football club and it should never be able to happen again.

  ‘The situation at Coventry underlined the importance and the need for legislation. The problem hasn’t gone away and they need to act.’

  A spokesman for HMRC said: ‘Our view remains that the football creditor rule is unfair to all other unsecured creditors who are forced to make do with much smaller returns – if anything – on monies owed to them by football clubs which enter administration.’

  Just to be sure Football League officials were aware the football creditors rule was potentially under threat, I travelled to London to hand-deliver copies of the Coventry Telegraph on the day of the crucial meeting. They were very special editions which also featured the faces of scores of Coventry City fans holding placards emblazoned with the #BringCityHome slogan

  The comments from the Conservative MP seemingly focused minds at the Football League. We soon learnt that the required payment had been made by the club’s owners and another major hurdle to the club’s return had been removed.

  Coventry North East MP Bob Ainsworth said he had little doubt that the comments from Mr Collins had played an important role in removing the roadblock to peace talks.

  He said: ‘When Damian Collins became involved, and with him being a Tory and in power, that had a huge impact.

  ‘When he started talking about the potential for the football creditors’ rule to be scrapped, we thought that was the best way into the Football League.

  ‘I had raised it with ministers, and they said it changed the game.

  ‘Why in hell has football got this special arrangement that no other area of business enjoys?

  ‘Jeremy Wright was also quite helpful. He wrote letters and spoke to colleagues in government.

  ‘Hugh Robertson, who was minister for sport at the time, was also very helpful.’

  ACL board director Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen agreed that the political pressure was the biggest factor in getting the Football League to act.

  He told me: ‘The Football League’s priority seemed to be protecting its member and not being seen by other members to be causing a problem for a member.

  ‘The Football League was undoubtedly heavily influenced by the political pressure and the suggestion that the football creditors rule could be lost if this situation wasn’t resolved satisfactorily.

  ‘The deal on the table at that Football League meeting had
to be taken.

  ‘The political pressure was there because of the campaigns and the marches, and because of the work of people like Bob Ainsworth and Damian Collins, who were extremely helpful. It helps to have that noise.

  ‘The pressure from the public couldn’t really influence the decisions we made as directors because our responsibilities were fixed. But did it make people work longer hours to find a solution? Absolutely.’

  Finally, we seemed to be making progress. But the club wasn’t back yet.

  Secretly, and away from the glare of the public, meetings were taking place between all of the key parties.

  In mid-August 2014, I had learned from my sources that a deal had been agreed for the club to return to the Ricoh Arena. Frustratingly, I had to sit on this story for almost a week at the request of the parties involved. Of course, we obliged. If the deal was going to collapse at this late stage, it wasn’t going to be because of the Coventry Telegraph.

  On 21 August, at 1pm, we broke the news. I had never been more excited about breaking a story in my life. Initially, some people refused to believe it, which was understandable bearing in mind the huge setbacks supporters had faced over the years.

  But as the official statements started to drip out over the next few hours, the city rejoiced. Coventry City were coming home.

  But how had they got there? There were many interesting claims at the time, but the truth of the matter emerged during my research for this book.

  My favourite story was probably when Coventry Cathedral attempted to suggest they had been responsible for the club’s return.

  Reverend John Witcombe, the Dean of Coventry, suggested he had set the ball rolling by travelling to London to meet Sisu boss Joy Seppala. Frankly, the idea that this had unlocked the situation was nonsense – but the opportunity to use the headline ‘Divine intervention’ was perhaps too good an opportunity to pass up.

  Two people who undoubtedly played a key role were ACL chairman Chris Robinson and the club’s chief executive Steve Waggott.

  The pair were relatively new faces in the context of the long-running battle and were perhaps able to bring fresh perspective as they negotiated for a week behind the scenes.