This is people’s hopes, dreams, memories, friendships cemented in the moments of happiness spent together. Please don’t let us die. It means too much to too many!
- JUST ONE OF THE MESSAGES FROM CITY FANS RESPONDING TO OUR PLEA TO SAVE CLUB
COVENTRY City bosses are again demanding answers from Coventry City Council over what they call “unconditional promises” that the Ricoh Arena sale would not threaten the football club’s future.
The club have previously pointed to the council’s pledge from 2014 that the sale of its Ricoh Arena operating company shares would not threaten the future of the football club. And the Telegraph was the first to raise the issue in December, when we put a series of questions to all parties in the Ricoh Arena row. A confidential council report from October 2014 sent to the Telegraph by the Sky Blues states that “any deal relating to the Ricoh Arena would not be approved unless the following three tests were satisfied:
1) A good deal for the city
2) the security and future of Coventry City Football Club
3) the security and future of Coventry Rugby Club
It goes on to add: “The city council remains committed to try to ensure that CCFC is able to continue to play its home matches at the Ricoh Arena.
“It will include a requirement in agreements underpinning the sale that this option must exist for CCFC subject to it reaching a commercial agreement with ACL.
“The terms of this transaction do not impact in any way on the terms of the August 2014 licence agreement with CCFC which will be fully honoured.”
CCFC bosses are now calling on the leader of Coventry City Council George Duggins to “immediately facilitate a new deal for CCFC to stay on at its home” - or prove the assurances came with a time limit.
The club is currently facing expulsion from the English Football League after being unable to solve the deadlock to play at the Ricoh Arena after their rent deal ends in May.
The latest statement from Coventry City adds: “George Duggins is trying to re-write history.
“If, when the deal was announced in 2014, the council had said ‘four years’ for their promise to the city’s football club and fans – would the deal have been accepted by the people of Coventry, or would they have challenged it?
“The council made the statement, and the unconditional promise, rightly to try to re-assure people as Wasps moved into the city.
“Councillor Duggins, who was deputy council leader when talks over joint ownership of the stadium between the council and SISU collapsed in 2012 and attended the talks with then Leader John Mutton, needs to explain why the council is now misleading the public.
“He also needs to explain why the council is refusing to release other important documents relating to this unconditional promise from 2014.”
But Mr Duggins and leader of the opposition Gary Ridley said in statement to the Telegraph in December last year that the assurances on the sale of the stadium were never meant to last forever.
They argued that the council was only ever trying to secure the club’s future at the stadium in the short term while they were still tenants, as the club had plans to build its own stadium.
A joint statement from Cllr George Duggins, Leader of Coventry City Council and Cllr Gary Ridley, Leader of the Opposition Conservative Party, Coventry City Council reads: “In 2014 when the Ricoh Arena was sold, it was wellpublicised that Coventry City Football Club (CCFC) had stated it would be moving at the end of its existing lease to a new stadium that it intended to build. This was the reason why Coventry City Council ensured the existing tenancy – a two year deal with the option for two more – was honoured as part of any sale to Wasps to secure its future.
“No organisation can guarantee a future tenancy at a development they no longer own and we played no part in the one-year extension agreed with Wasps in February last year when it was made clear again that no further extension would be given without the cessation of legal action.
“Coventry City Council has always been clear that any future agreement to play at the Ricoh Arena would be dependent on Wasps and CCFC reaching a commercial agreement. That remains the case today.
“The current situation is about the fact that a commercial agreement cannot be reached due to the continuation of legal action by the football club owners and not about whether there is any legal requirement that trumps that. The statement from CCFC today is a distraction to a more important issue to which there remains an easy solution. For almost three years Coventry City Council has been saying that it is happy to talk to the football club once all legal proceedings are dropped and our stance has not changed.”
Meanwhile, the club have revealed what they were telling the EFL ahead of yesterday’s deadline for the club to its plans to host home matches next season.
A spokesman for Coventry City said: “No decision on the club’s future will be made either today or tomorrow.
“The club will confirm its aim is to agree a deal at our home, the Ricoh Arena. This is best for the Coventry City Football Club, its fans, the community and all parties.
“We are of course aware that Wasps have chosen not to negotiate with us while our owners SISU pursue their legal case against Coventry City Council, in which Wasps are named as an interested party.
“As such, the club’s management have a responsibility to the football club and its future and to its fans, to explore other options that may be used to ensure the club’s survival if both sides maintain their stance and therefore no agreement can be reached for us to remain at the Ricoh Arena. This means our deadline is the 25 April, when if necessary there will be a vote of EFL members clubs on our future in the EFL.
“We will continue to do all that is in the football club’s power to achieve what we believe everyone wants to see next season – agreement for Coventry City to play at the Ricoh Arena – before that deadline, so that a vote on our place in the EFL is not necessary.”
A confidential meeting is being held at Westminster next week - and all of the key players will be there.
Members from the football club and their owners Sisu will be attending, along with Wasps, Coventry City Council and the English Football League in a bid to break the deadlock threatening the club’s future.