Rod Liddle article in Sunday Times today (4 Viewers)

better days

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In stark contrast to the biased and politically motivated misinformation peddled by David Conn on behalf of his friends at the council Rod Liddle has given a more honest appraisal in today's Sunday Times. Copied and pasted below as there is a paywall



Stung again — spare a thought for homeless Coventry City as Wasps row rumbles on


rod liddle

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It is 18 years since Coventry City last played in the Premier League, during which time they have come close to extinction, played in the lowest tier for the first time since 1959 and generally had a fairly awful time of it.

Last season gave fans a few reasons for optimism — manager Mark Robins had assembled a decent squad and a late run took them close to a place in the League One playoffs. But now, this. For the second time in the past 18 years, the Sky Blues are without a home of their own and will be playing next season’s home fixtures at St Andrew’s, in Birmingham, 21 miles away.

The club’s owners, the London hedge fund SISU, have failed to strike a deal with Wasps rugby union team, who play at — and own — the Ricoh Arena. Back in 2013-14 City played their home games at Sixfields stadium, home of Northampton Town, more than 32 miles distant. They had hoped those bad old days were gone. The decision to play at St Andrew’s was again a last-ditch attempt to prevent the club being expelled from the Football League on account of having nowhere to play.

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Feeling blue: Coventry fans will once again have to make a long journey to watch their beloved sideMARC ATKINS
A spokesman for SISU said “we are incredibly disappointed and frustrated” that no deal could be struck over the Ricoh Arena. Not as frustrated as the EFL — which agreed to the ground share with Birmingham City only with great reluctance — or, of course, the benighted fans. Last season Coventry City were the fifth best supported club in League One, with an average home attendance of 12,362, an improvement on the previous season’s average of 9,255. They will be very lucky to achieve half of that number next season: their average home league attendance while playing at Northampton’s ground was scarcely over 2,000.

The problems are myriad and complex. A long-standing row over the sale of the Ricoh Arena to Wasps rumbles on and is coming before the European Commission. City believe the ground was grossly undervalued when it was sold, to the tune of about £28m. But that is only the half of it.

Wasps are, on the face of it, an extremely successful rugby union club. They finished eighth in the Gallagher Premiership last season with an average attendance of 17,975 — a figure beaten only by Leicester Tigers. But their financial position is far more perilous than that of Coventry City and, frankly, they will be fortunate if they are in existence by the this time next year. Their debts, for a rugby club, are astonishing — £55.8m at the latest count after their pre-tax losses last season more than doubled to £9.7m.

The total owed to their Irish owner Derek Richardson, who six years ago rescued them from bankruptcy at the last minute, rose to £18.6m, which some estimate to be at least a third of the chap’s worth.

Worse still, Wasps now face a serious inquiry into alleged financial shenanigans, involving suggestions of grossly overstated profits, a breach of covenants regarding bonds and effectively lying about a million quid or so which Wasps marked down as capital revenue when actually it was another bung from the uniquely generous Richardson.

Meanwhile, hanging over them is the legal action that insists they got the Ricoh on the cheap. If I were a Wasps fan I would be looking at the relatively stable Coventry City with a degree of envy: City’s latest losses were less than £2m, which is around about what you might expect for a decent sized club in the third tier.

The Sky Blues supporters are, of course, beside themselves with fury that they will not be able to watch their team play in their home city and have been apt to blame the owners, as is so often the case.

This seems to me a bit harsh. Without the intervention of the hedge fund monkeys, Coventry City would not exist at all and SISU have put an awful lot of money into the club, without seeing very much in the way of a return.

Again one is tempted to ask why they have done this, but as they are all financial experts I suppose they must know what they are doing.

League One is rapidly becoming a sanctum of the lost and the dispossessed, given the travails of poor Bolton Wanderers.

There was a time, fairly recently, when Coventry City had the longest unbroken spell in the top tier of any club, Arsenal and Everton excepted — 34 years of pleasant over-achievement that included a memorable FA Cup final win over Tottenham Hotspur in 1987, participation in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a two-legged tie against Bayern Munich, and a top-six finish. And that delightful goal off a free kick scored by Ernie Hunt after Willie Carr’s illegal flick-up, which we all tried to copy in the playground.

Sentimentalists such as me, then, rather hope that Coventry’s problems come to an end very quickly. There is the suggestion now that City’s owners may attempt to build a new ground somewhere in the environs of Coventry. In which case, what on earth will happen to the Ricoh Arena if Wasps go bust? Or even if they don’t? It seems a little bit profligate in these straitened times.
 

WillenhallSkyBlues

Well-Known Member
Very true reflection on that. The anti sisu pro wasps lot think we’re bitter when we say how much the wasps are in the shit but in reality they’re in dire straight. Finishing 8th last season and losing most of their top players should be a wake up call
 

tisza

Well-Known Member
anyone got a link to this financial investigation of Wasps?
never mind. found them. was away that week
 
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Otis

Well-Known Member
Very true reflection on that. The anti sisu pro wasps lot think we’re bitter when we say how much the wasps are in the shit but in reality they’re in dire straight. Finishing 8th last season and losing most of their top players should be a wake up call
Let's hope they continue to descend into financial ruin.

Wouldn't like to see them go bust, but would be nice to see them scuttle off with their tail between their legs.
 

Wiseoldfool

Well-Known Member
Can someone link this article onto other forums facebook and twitter,I think it's important to get a balance out there.
 

wince

Well-Known Member
Oi ...Wince & Co. Have a fuckin read
What you on about , I have always, always (even back in GMK days) said the blame lies equally between the council and sisu, and just for balance of this article, we would still have existed if sisu hadn't of taken us over , we would have gone into administration ,It was the council who wanted Sisu , In hindsight if we had of took the ten point hit , gone into admin we would have come out the other side debt free , but that would have meant the council also loosing control of the hold they had over the club ,and that's why in the beginning the council courted them .Get of your high horse I haven't taken the club to Birmingham and I didn't sell the ground to a london rugger team, Can you not understand that some City fans Haven't and wont pick a side in this sad mess and then argue it till the day they die , that doesn't mean we wont comment on things from time to time , and like you its only an opinion as none of us know the facts , only bits of twisted spin fed from either side
 

matesx

Well-Known Member
I would like to see them go bust.

Seems a distinct possibility....I hadn’t realised the they were iin such colossal debt with the added bonus of an investigation into dodgy dealings.

Pleasing.
 

OffenhamSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
Has Giblet retweeted this one, like he did with the one by Conn-artist?
I told him i considered his retweet a challenge to the balance he is supposed to follow as a BBC reporter.
His mum and dad (aka John Stretton and James Alexander) came rushing to his aid, claiming that i, too, am biased.
That may be the case, but (a) i'm NOT EMPLOYED BY THE BBC, and (b) i'm not going to give them the pleasure of biting!

To be fair to him, Giblet did say that he could see how it might be viewed as lacking balance and did reword his retweet, but he still hides behind the "RTs not necessarily an endorsement" line in his profile (the bit right below where it says he works for the BBC!). I told him he should be cautious in his use of the "Vunipola defence" .
 

Nick

Administrator
Has a wasps fan really said that wasps lawyers should look at it to see if the bond prices will be altered by him mentioning their finances? Do they really not realise things like that and that they are being investigated?
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
The usual rubbish on drunken drivel they are so full of shit, we are bad on here only looking at one side of things but they are far worse the only one that seems to have a brain is wasp222.
 

HuckerbyDublinWhelan

Well-Known Member
And what about the honest, true and genuine Wasps fans?

You would wish that upon them?

Surely not. Haven't other fans wanted to see us go bust because of Sisu? And don't we keep saying the club is not Sisu?

Entirely wrong to wish that on the Wasps fans.
Fuck them - I would. They didn’t give a shit when they were moving to Coventry and all the damage it would do, so why should we give a shit if they go tits up
 

Otis

Well-Known Member
Fuck them - I would. They didn’t give a shit when they were moving to Coventry and all the damage it would do, so why should we give a shit if they go tits up
Very poor thinking that if you ask me.

How is it the genuine Wasps fans fault and why do they deserve to lose their club?

I thought we would be better than that considering our own predicament.

So many Wasps fans didn't want their club to move here.
 

usskyblue

Well-Known Member
What you on about , I have always, always (even back in GMK days) said the blame lies equally between the council and sisu, and just for balance of this article, we would still have existed if sisu hadn't of taken us over , we would have gone into administration ,It was the council who wanted Sisu , In hindsight if we had of took the ten point hit , gone into admin we would have come out the other side debt free , but that would have meant the council also loosing control of the hold they had over the club ,and that's why in the beginning the council courted them .Get of your high horse I haven't taken the club to Birmingham and I didn't sell the ground to a london rugger team, Can you not understand that some City fans Haven't and wont pick a side in this sad mess and then argue it till the day they die , that doesn't mean we wont comment on things from time to time , and like you its only an opinion as none of us know the facts , only bits of twisted spin fed from either side

FairPlay. By far the best post I’ve seen from you m8
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
And what about the honest, true and genuine Wasps fans?

You would wish that upon them?

Surely not. Haven't other fans wanted to see us go bust because of Sisu? And don't we keep saying the club is not Sisu?

Entirely wrong to wish that on the Wasps fans.

No it isn’t I could give a toss about them
 

Johnnythespider

Well-Known Member
And what about the honest, true and genuine Wasps fans?

You would wish that upon them?

Surely not. Haven't other fans wanted to see us go bust because of Sisu? And don't we keep saying the club is not Sisu?

Entirely wrong to wish that on the Wasps fans.
I wouldn't want them to go bust Otis, i would like them to go back from whence they came though, then we would see how many of their new fans would be prepared to travel 100 miles each way to watch them play, a situation they seem quite happy to have bestowed upon their Wycombe based support.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say it's a balanced article as it is only a very small part of the whole story, but it does describe a different point of view.

What is not balanced about it?
 

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