Coventry City
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‘The club was meant to be the owner and the long-term tenant. It was never meant to be the council and a charity having to form and operate the company. It has gone calamitously wrong, and permanently wrong with Wasps there now.
‘I understand that the initial rent was a great deal of money. But at the same time, they did have a stadium built for them and in the end they hardly put in any money at all.
‘Nobody was trying to screw the football club. That was the rent that they had to fix to make it stack up in the beginning.
‘During all my enquiries into it, I never reached the conclusion that the council was ever trying to do anything other than regenerate an area and give its football club a massive benefit and increase its profile in an era when, if all had gone to plan, Coventry City could have gone back to the Premier League and made an absolute fortune.
‘Obviously the current owners ended up in a dispute and we all know what the judges found.’
He added: ‘A council in a really not well-off city, which had suffered post-industrial decline, has funded this brand spanking new stadium – and that must have been a major attraction for Sisu to buy the club in the first place.’
He added that he feared history could repeat itself if a deal with Wasps for a long-term stay at the Ricoh Arena could not be agreed.
He said: ‘I think they need to stop going on about new stadiums. Play some good football and try and fill the place.
‘If the owners are still not prepared to do that, then I do think there is a danger a Sixfields-type situation could happen again.
‘To think that this club came to that. Tenants of Northampton Town with the fans standing on a hill in winter to protest, or staying away completely, and to think it came about as part of a dispute. Besides everything else that was wrong about that, it was just so sad.
‘This football club, with all its heritage and all the fondness people have for it, was being used as a pawn in a game that had sunk to this extent.
‘Like when Wimbledon moved to Milton Keynes, it’s another of those situations that the Football League has got to look at and say ‘we’re never going to allow that again.’
‘I hope the Football League will learn lessons from it. But I think the situation at Coventry City is still very dangerous.’
I wish I could end this book on a happier note. But sadly, for now, Coventry City remains a club without a home.
The ‘Arena 2000’ stadium model pictured in 1997.
Bryan Richardson, CCFC chairman, with the ‘Arena 2000’ model in January 1999.
The crowd on the Highfield Road pitch following the last game in April 2005.
Andy Whing celebrates scoring the last ever goal at Highfield Road in April 2005.
Fans on the pitch after the last game at Highfield Road in April 2005.
Paul Fletcher, ACL then CCFC managing director, with CCFC chairman Mike McGinnity in 2007.
Geoffrey Robinson (left) with Ray Ranson just a few hours after Sisu had agreed to take over CCFC in December 2007.
‘Best board ever’ pictured in 2011. (l/r) Paul Clouting, Chief Executive; Ken Dulieu, Chairman; John Clarke, Vice Chairman; Leonard Brody, Director; and Onye Igwe, Director.
Ray Ranson (centre) with Joe Elliott (left) and Gary Hoffman (right) in 2011.
Preston Haskell IV with then Coventry City Council leader John Mutton ahead of the American’s CCFC takeover bid in April 2013.
Protesters in Broadgate during the first Sky Blue Trust march in July 2013.
Protesters on Gosford Street first Sky Blue Trust organised march in July 2013.
The Coventry Telegraph front page after the club’s first game at Sixfields in August 2013.
Protest at The Emirates during CCFC’s FA Cup clash with Arsenal in January 2014.
Protesters fill Broadgate during the second Sky Blue Trust organised protest march in July 2014.
Protesters on the hill at Sixfields in August 2014.
The Coventry Telegraph front page announcing that the Sky Blues would be coming home in August 2014.
Ray Oliver, Dave Kaczur, George Stringer and Gaz Robinson who were the first group to get their tickets for the Sky Blues’ return to the Ricoh Arena in September 2014.
Sisu chief executive Joy Seppala and CCFC chairman Tim Fisher on the Ricoh Arena pitch for CCFC’s first game back at the stadium in September 2014.
Steven Pressley and the players return to inspect the Ricoh Arena pitch ahead of their return to the stadium in September 2014.