Gregor Robertson article in The Times today (1 Viewer)

better days

Well-Known Member
Cut and pasted below as there is a paywall


Coventry City’s sorry saga moves to new ‘home’


Crisis club start life in Birmingham with a victory but it brings few smiles

Gregor Robertson
August 5 2019, 12:01am, The Times

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Swathes of empty seats greeted Coventry’s first match at St Andrew’sSTEPHEN LAWRENCE/TPI/REX
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How has it come to this — again? It was a question that was impossible to shake off on Saturday as, for the second time in six years, Coventry City began a season playing their home games outside their city. The parlous state of their fellow Sky Bet League One clubs Bury and Bolton Wanderers, and a wearying familiarity with this long-running and demoralising saga, has perhaps dulled the sense of outrage towards Coventry’s plight. But as their season kicked off against Southend United at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s stadium, their new groundshare 22 miles from the Ricoh Arena, it all became very real.

“For the last 12 years, it’s felt like death by a thousand cuts,” David Eyles, the Sky Blues Trust chairman, says. “Since 2007, I can’t remember a Saturday afternoon where I’ve just talked about the football; it’s always been about the off-field matters. I just want to go back to being a fan again.”

Eyles, along with about half of Coventry’s fans who attended home games at the Ricoh last season, will not be making the journey to St Andrew’s. “To me it just doesn’t feel right,” he says. “I’m not criticising anybody who does go. We’ve all been left with a very difficult choice as Cov fans. But, while it’s said that the move outside the city is temporary, it could be for a lot longer.”

“So, how did we get here?” are the opening words of A Club Without a Home, a book by Simon Gilbert, the former Coventry Telegraph reporter, that charts the labyrinthine course of events that led the top-flight stalwarts of 34 consecutive years to their previous season in exile, in Northampton, in 2013-14, and the battle to return to the Ricoh, the 32,000-seat stadium specially built for the club by the city council, but now owned by Wasps, the rugby union club.

After buying the club in 2007, Sisu, a London-based hedge fund, spent millions, only to lead Coventry to two relegations and the fourth tier for the first time since 1959. It attempted to financially ruin the Ricoh’s operating company, which was owned by the city council and a charity, in order to buy a share in the stadium for a knock-down price. It has pursued a series of expensive and fruitless court cases over the council’s sale of the Ricoh to Wasps. And in the process it has destroyed, beyond repair, relations with the one-club city’s fan base.

After Sisu’s failure, in April, to agree a new tenancy agreement with Wasps, who are happy for Coventry to play there, but not, understandably, while they are a sitting litigant, the club were left with no alternative but to groundshare, or lose membership of the Football League. Sisu has asked the European Commission to investigate its claim that the Ricoh was undervalued by £27 million when sold by Coventry City Council.

It is an exasperating tale from which no party emerges with any credit, including the EFL, whose continued impotence leaves supporters struggling to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

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Coventry will spend the season 22 miles from home as the Ricoh Stadium dispute rumbles onSTERHEN LAWRENCE/TPI/ REX
“Sisu have made noises about building their own stadium,” Eyles says. “But it would take about three years from getting planning permission to actually having a stadium erected. And the relationship with the council hasn’t exactly been great. So, while it starts with one year, it could be three, or it could be five. The fear is that we become a nomadic football club.”

Coventry’s previous exile, 35 miles away at Northampton Town’s Sixfields, brought the biggest boycott of an English team by their supporters since Wimbledon’s relocation to Milton Keynes in 2003. The average attendance for “home” matches at Sixfields was 2,364, the lowest in the club’s Football League history and a drop of 78 per cent from the 10,938 average at the Ricoh the previous season. Protesting fans memorably took up residence on the steep slope overlooking Sixfields dubbed “Jimmy’s Hill” during every home game.

If there is one positive to be taken, this season already feels different. On Saturday there were no protests, just sadness and perhaps even a flicker of defiance. Only 3,000 season tickets have been sold compared with 7,000 last season. And the 5,500 home fans inside the near-30,000 capacity St Andrew’s provided stirring support throughout a deserved win that suggested Mark Robins’s dynamic young team are right to have been tipped as a dark horse in the race for the League One play-offs.

A fine second-half strike by Zain Westbrooke sealed a 1-0 win against Southend, who rallied late on and struck the crossbar but could not find an equaliser. Five of Coventry’s ten summer signings were in a starting XI with an average age of 24, while 18-year-old Josh Eccles, a second-half substitute, was one of three home-grown teenagers on the bench. The fruitful academy which has produced, among others, James Maddison, Callum Wilson, Cyrus Christie and Tom Bayliss, the talented 20-year-old midfielder sold to Preston North End for about £2 million on Friday, continues to be a shining beacon in the darkness.

“Everyone in the stadium has contributed to a good day,” said Robins, the former Manchester United striker who praised the positive atmosphere engendered by the supporters. “We’ve got the experience of winning here, early on, which is outstanding.”

Many supporters are determined to focus on the football: a new Coventry City Supporters’ Club has been founded in the city in a bid to “build the bond between players and supporters”, as Sue Medlock, the group’s co-chair, says. “It’s so important, now, more than ever, that we support the team.”
 

lord_garrincha

Well-Known Member
“Since 2007, I can’t remember a Saturday afternoon where I’ve just talked about the football"

Maybe you just don't want to Dave... because plenty of others certainly have!

I wish the national media actually did a proper job and speak to fans who did go, and move away from an one eyed agenda.
 

Nick

Administrator
“Since 2007, I can’t remember a Saturday afternoon where I’ve just talked about the football"

Maybe you just don't want to Dave... because plenty of others certainly have!

I wish the national media actually did a proper job and speak to fans who did go, and move away from an one eyed agenda.

I have had plenty of Saturdays just talking about football. On the way home on Saturday I was talking about football and what we had just seen.
 

lord_garrincha

Well-Known Member
Maybe Dave was misquoted, and he actually said:

“Since 2014, I can’t remember a Saturday afternoon where I’ve just talked about the football, because I just want to talk about how lovely Nick and his Wasps are"
 

NorthernWisdom

Well-Known Member
To be honest I think I discuss off field events, even briefly, at every game I attend.
The literalism is out large again anyway, not noting commonly used turns of phrase.

He's not wrong that the politics have overshadowed the football for more years than we care to remember.

He's not wrong that we've all been given very difficult choices. Nor is he wrong that the move away could be a lot longer than this 'temporary' effort - we really have to keep that in mind so we don't sleepwalk into it being longer. He's not wrong that a new stadium won't just appear.

These are very, very big concerns, and to ignore them and sweep them under the carpet is folly.

A new supporters club? As in a rival to the Trust?

Based on their reason to exist, nope. They're there as a focus on the football, the players, and their connection with fans. They're not there to hold the club and other parties to account.
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
It attempted to financially ruin the Ricoh’s operating company, which was owned by the city council and a charity, in order to buy a share in the stadium for a knock-down price. It has pursued a series of expensive and fruitless court cases over the council’s sale of the Ricoh to Wasps. And in the process it has destroyed, beyond repair, relations with the one-club city’s fan ba
Stopped reading here, what a load of shite.

Didn’t want to do some proper journalism and let the nation know that actually our owners were just fed up of paying £1.3m in rent for a league one club to have access to the stadium 23 days a year? And that further attempts for renegotiation were futile because the council were already dropping their trousers for London wasps at this point (refer to the emails that have been swept under the rug) so were never going to give the club a fair deal?

Then maybe mention that the council then sold the whole fucking stadium to a London based rugby team for around 4 times what they were charging us a year in rent?

Fucking joke. Gilbert or the sky blue trust may as well have written that article.
 

Liquid Gold

Well-Known Member
2007? When Coleman was there he was talking about the politics or has he just picked the date sisu took over as that's easier to bash them?
 

better days

Well-Known Member
Stopped reading here, what a load of shite.

Didn’t want to do some proper journalism and let the nation know that actually our owners were just fed up of paying £1.3m in rent for a league one club to have access to the stadium 23 days a year? And that further attempts for renegotiation were futile because the council were already dropping their trousers for London wasps at this point (refer to the emails that have been swept under the rug) so were never going to give the club a fair deal?

Then maybe mention that the council then sold the whole fucking stadium to a London based rugby team for around 4 times what they were charging us a year in rent?

Fucking joke. Gilbert or the sky blue trust may as well have written that article.
I posted it without comment
It's obviously biased in a way that Rod Liddle's recent article in The Sunday Times wasn't
I'd guessed it was the Trust man who gave Robertson that angle to use
 

mr_monkey

Well-Known Member
Stopped reading here, what a load of shite.

Didn’t want to do some proper journalism and let the nation know that actually our owners were just fed up of paying £1.3m in rent for a league one club to have access to the stadium 23 days a year? And that further attempts for renegotiation were futile because the council were already dropping their trousers for London wasps at this point (refer to the emails that have been swept under the rug) so were never going to give the club a fair deal?

Then maybe mention that the council then sold the whole fucking stadium to a London based rugby team for around 4 times what they were charging us a year in rent?

Fucking joke. Gilbert or the sky blue trust may as well have written that article.

I came on to basically say the same.... Just out of interest, did the telegraph ever report on those leaked emails or the trust comment on them? I'd really like to know their views on it
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
I posted it without comment
It's obviously biased in a way that Rod Liddle's recent article in The Sunday Times wasn't
I'd guessed it was the Trust man who gave Robertson that angle to use
It wasn’t directed at you mate I was commenting on the article, just had to quote your post for the text.
 

robbiekeane

Well-Known Member
I came on to basically say the same.... Just out of interest, did the telegraph ever report on those leaked emails or the trust comment on them? I'd really like to know their views on it
I don’t think so no, I was looking out for it. And the sad thing is that older people or just more passive fans take what the telegraph report as gospel and it’s their main source of information.
 
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clint van damme

Well-Known Member
I have often been critical of the trust and agree with some of the points picked up on in the article for criticism.
But - we wanted the trust to blame all parties, that's twice Dave has levelled blame at all parties in two national newspapers.
He has also said unequivocally he doesn't blame people for going it's there choice.

Perhaps the trust is too set in it's ways to be reformed but they are small steps in the right direction, maybe give them a chance to build on that, and if they don't then they deserve the flak.
 

Nick

Administrator
I have often been critical of the trust and agree with some of the points picked up on in the article for criticism.
But - we wanted the trust to blame all parties, that's twice Dave has levelled blame at all parties in two national newspapers.
He has also said unequivocally he doesn't blame people for going it's there choice.

Perhaps the trust is too set in it's ways to be reformed but they are small steps in the right direction, maybe give them a chance to build on that, and if they don't then they deserve the flak.

Is he blaming all parties? It's a bit early and the text is a bit hard to process but I can't see that in this?
 
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chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Is he blaming all parties? It's a bit early and the text is a bit hard to process but I can't see that in this?
This is the bit of the article that is his quote, not seeing anything in there that blames all sides.
Dave Eyles said:
For the last 12 years, it’s felt like death by a thousand cuts. Since 2007, I can’t remember a Saturday afternoon where I’ve just talked about the football; it’s always been about the off-field matters. I just want to go back to being a fan again.

To me it just doesn’t feel right. I’m not criticising anybody who does go. We’ve all been left with a very difficult choice as Cov fans. But, while it’s said that the move outside the city is temporary, it could be for a lot longer.
 

clint van damme

Well-Known Member
Is he blaming all parties? It's a bit early and the text is a bit hard to process but I can't see that in this?

I think you're right but he did in the other article and said specifically he won't criticise anyone who's going in this one.

Small changes but it might be a start. In the past there would have been snide little remarks in there. Like I say, maybe nothing will change and maybe I'm letting the fact I know Dave cloud my judgement but I think we should give him a chance.

I think the trust will be finished if they don't reform this time, not sure whether they realise that though.
 

Nick

Administrator
I think you're right but he did in the other article and said specifically he won't criticise anyone who's going in this one.

Small changes but it might be a start. In the past there would have been snide little remarks in there. Like I say, maybe nothing will change and maybe I'm letting the fact I know Dave cloud my judgement but I think we should give him a chance.

I think the trust will be finished if they don't reform this time, not sure whether they realise that though.

Saying he won't criticise somebody for going isn't blaming all parties, it's just common sense really considering how the website was saying he refused to go at one point at the Ricoh.

All for giving chances but nothing much has really changed yet.
 
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oldskyblue58

CCFC Finance Director
it attempted to financially ruin the Ricoh’s operating company, which was owned by the city council and a charity, in order to buy a share in the stadium for a knock-down price.

Actually that bit is correct, and held to be so by a number of Judges who have seen all the documents involved. It very nearly worked. The timeline on what went on over the lease and who drove that particular part of this saga is pretty clear, not going to explain it for the umpteenth time but it started before those leaked ACL emails and before 21 April 2011. SISU arranged things in the company structures & administration so that they could break the lease believing that the outcome would distress ACL to the point of no return, which would allow them to gain the stadium outright. It was a clever plan that was far closer to success than people realise.

It has pursued a series of expensive and fruitless court cases over the council’s sale of the Ricoh to Wasps.

Again factual isnt it. It is what has gone on so far.

And in the process it has destroyed, beyond repair, relations with the one-club city’s fan base.

I do not think that is correct. There seems to be, at least for now, a large number of fans bonding together simply to support the team ........... isnt that what it should all be about really?

The article doesn't address the part played others in creating this mess though and in that sense is unbalanced
 

clint van damme

Well-Known Member
Saying he won't criticise somebody for going isn't blaming all parties, it's just common sense really considering how the website was saying he refused to go at one point at the Ricoh.

All for giving chances but nothing much has really changed yet.

But that is a change, there would have been a snide remark in the past.
They stopped kalns getting a place on the board even though he was only 1 of 6 for 6 places, (although the equally devisive Johnson is still there).
Got to admit, im not confident they'll reform but I'm prepared to give them a bit longer.
 

vow

Well-Known Member
I have often been critical of the trust and agree with some of the points picked up on in the article for criticism.
But - we wanted the trust to blame all parties, that's twice Dave has levelled blame at all parties in two national newspapers.
He has also said unequivocally he doesn't blame people for going it's there choice.

Perhaps the trust is too set in it's ways to be reformed but they are small steps in the right direction, maybe give them a chance to build on that, and if they don't then they deserve the flak.
Sorry Clint, can't see where he's blamed all parties equally, just an overriding blame for SISU.

Nothing on ACL trying to buy London Cunts behind the club's back 18 months prior to Sixfields move either.

Shite journalism.
 

clint van damme

Well-Known Member
Sorry Clint, can't see where he's blamed all parties equally, just an overriding blame for SISU.

Nothing on ACL trying to buy London Cunts behind the club's back 18 months prior to Sixfields move either.

Shite journalism.

See my post above mate, admitted I've made an error.
 
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chiefdave

Well-Known Member
This part is pretty astonishing:
After Sisu’s failure, in April, to agree a new tenancy agreement with Wasps, who are happy for Coventry to play there, but not, understandably, while they are a sitting litigant, the club were left with no alternative but to groundshare, or lose membership of the Football League. Sisu has asked the European Commission to investigate its claim that the Ricoh was undervalued by £27 million when sold by Coventry City Council.
How can you fail to mention that Wasps want the club to cover any losses by them or the council if they get found to be in the wrong?
 

clint van damme

Well-Known Member
This part is pretty astonishing:

How can you fail to mention that Wasps want the club to cover any losses by them or the council if they get found to be in the wrong?

And this is why, yes, im prepared to give the new trust board a chance, but a protest against wasps has to be on their agenda if they are to restore credibility going forward.
 

shepardo01

Well-Known Member
The article doesn't address the part played others in creating this mess though and in that sense is unbalanced
Absolutely OSB!.... as so is the case for pretty much all articles... why do we think this is the case? Is it due to our own local media outlets (cov tel, CWR, (trust)) unwillness to print any anti Wasps/coucil rhetoric and their one sided reporting?
 

shepardo01

Well-Known Member
And this is why, yes, im prepared to give the new trust board a chance, but a protest against wasps has to be on their agenda if they are to restore credibility going forward.
I think they will, they have to... don't they!!??
HOWEVER...also think that they will be in dialogue with Wasps as to how this will have least effect....
So will more than likely be:
When City have an away game on the same day. (Imagine if they did it to coincide with a home game!)
VERY late notice.
NO media links to cov tel (very much unlike last time with marches etc)
NO media links to CWR (very much unlike last time)
Minimal promotion.

Hope I'm wrong... but that is how I see it panning out....
 

RegTheDonk

Well-Known Member
This part is pretty astonishing:

How can you fail to mention that Wasps want the club to cover any losses by them or the council if they get found to be in the wrong?
Because you've got a bloke from the Trust feeding his stance to some hack gobbling it up. Lovely picture of the lady with the SISU Out top too, just to reinforce the message.
 

Skybluemichael

Well-Known Member
“Ricoh, the 32,000-seat stadium specially built for the club by the city council” is that true or did they come in at the end to cover the cost? Genuine question what did the ccc pay to get the stadium back then?
 

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