SydneySkyBlue
Member
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/brian-reade-column-coventry-owners-2030672
Brian Reade on Coventry: Owners' plans to ground-share at Northampton is saying Cobblers to the fans
Back in the late Seventies, I sent myself to Coventry for four blissful years.
It should have only been three, but I managed to spin out the student hedonism the way you could in the good old days, without fear of debts or missed rungs on career ladders.
They were good days for watching football too.
Coventry were a proper top-flight club, playing in a proper, atmospheric ground called Highfield Road (I even saw an FA Cup semi-final there, and still curse Arsenal’s Brian Talbot to this day).
My best mate was at Nene College, Northampton, but I only visited him three times, as the 35-mile, mostly A-road, bus trip felt like the inspiration for Chris Rea’s Road To Hell.
Well, from next month, anyone from Coventry wishing to see their beloved City play their home games, might have to make that hellish trip after the venture-fund owners SISU, who refuse to pay the rent to the Ricoh stadium owners, ACL, seek a ground-share with Northampton Town.
Although, with the vast majority of their desolate fans promising to boycott the move, at least the route won’t be busy.
Oh how, as John Sillett has been tearfully lamenting, the once (almost) mighty have fallen.
A 130-year-old club, recently in the top flight for 34 years, in the ninth biggest city in England, is in administration, with no ground and no future.
Other than to play before a handful of fans in a 7,600 stadium, in a faraway town, as unrepentant owners talk about building a new ground, without a location, *planning permission or money.
Non-League obscurity beckons.
Coventry’s story is a truly sobering one for all football fans, even though parts of it will be familiar to many.
It goes *something like this:
As football enjoys its post-Sky era boom, an “ambitious” board decides to cash in on their inner-city home, conveniently deemed “too costly to redevelop”.
So, a potential corporate killing is made, moving to a new stadium on the city outskirts with “better motorway links” that will allow them to compete with “the best in the land”.
But the cash cow is a mirage, the club’s soul disappears, along with attendances, the ground becomes unaffordable and they fall into administration.
Saviours in the form of hedge-fund capitalists snap the club up for a pound, promising a bright future when all they’re after is a huge profit from selling it on.
But they can’t because their asking price is too high, the club, like the world economy is in the doldrums, and what follows is a war involving another bankruptcy, new owners (who are the old ones under a different guise), the local council, stadium owners, rival bidders, and administrators as the club is dragged to its knees.
Meanwhile, the Football League looks on, unable or unwilling to administer a genuine Fit and Proper Persons ownership test.
Where, in this woeful tale, is the vigilance, stewardship and *direction from the Football League, whose motto is “Real Football, Real Fans”?
Can they explain to Coventry fans how they allowed their club to become such a sorry mess?
Or do they prefer, like the other guilty parties, to blame someone else and say “Cobblers” to fans’ complaints about being exiled to Northampton?
I’m on a panel at an event today (organised by BOSS magazine and a group called STAND Against Modern Football), asking how fans can make their voices heard in protest at what is being done to their game.
My advice to Coventry fans is simple: Take inspiration from your city’s most famous protester and do a Lady Godiva.
On the day of the first home game, strip naked and ride on horses (or bikes) into the city centre, bringing it to a standstill, with the names of the companies or individuals you deem *responsible for your shocking plight covering your naughty bits.
Name them, shame them and make global news.
At the very least, your city, SISU, ACL, the administrators, the Football League and the nation will understand what your football club means to you.
Brian Reade on Coventry: Owners' plans to ground-share at Northampton is saying Cobblers to the fans
Back in the late Seventies, I sent myself to Coventry for four blissful years.
It should have only been three, but I managed to spin out the student hedonism the way you could in the good old days, without fear of debts or missed rungs on career ladders.
They were good days for watching football too.
Coventry were a proper top-flight club, playing in a proper, atmospheric ground called Highfield Road (I even saw an FA Cup semi-final there, and still curse Arsenal’s Brian Talbot to this day).
My best mate was at Nene College, Northampton, but I only visited him three times, as the 35-mile, mostly A-road, bus trip felt like the inspiration for Chris Rea’s Road To Hell.
Well, from next month, anyone from Coventry wishing to see their beloved City play their home games, might have to make that hellish trip after the venture-fund owners SISU, who refuse to pay the rent to the Ricoh stadium owners, ACL, seek a ground-share with Northampton Town.
Although, with the vast majority of their desolate fans promising to boycott the move, at least the route won’t be busy.
Oh how, as John Sillett has been tearfully lamenting, the once (almost) mighty have fallen.
A 130-year-old club, recently in the top flight for 34 years, in the ninth biggest city in England, is in administration, with no ground and no future.
Other than to play before a handful of fans in a 7,600 stadium, in a faraway town, as unrepentant owners talk about building a new ground, without a location, *planning permission or money.
Non-League obscurity beckons.
Coventry’s story is a truly sobering one for all football fans, even though parts of it will be familiar to many.
It goes *something like this:
As football enjoys its post-Sky era boom, an “ambitious” board decides to cash in on their inner-city home, conveniently deemed “too costly to redevelop”.
So, a potential corporate killing is made, moving to a new stadium on the city outskirts with “better motorway links” that will allow them to compete with “the best in the land”.
But the cash cow is a mirage, the club’s soul disappears, along with attendances, the ground becomes unaffordable and they fall into administration.
Saviours in the form of hedge-fund capitalists snap the club up for a pound, promising a bright future when all they’re after is a huge profit from selling it on.
But they can’t because their asking price is too high, the club, like the world economy is in the doldrums, and what follows is a war involving another bankruptcy, new owners (who are the old ones under a different guise), the local council, stadium owners, rival bidders, and administrators as the club is dragged to its knees.
Meanwhile, the Football League looks on, unable or unwilling to administer a genuine Fit and Proper Persons ownership test.
Where, in this woeful tale, is the vigilance, stewardship and *direction from the Football League, whose motto is “Real Football, Real Fans”?
Can they explain to Coventry fans how they allowed their club to become such a sorry mess?
Or do they prefer, like the other guilty parties, to blame someone else and say “Cobblers” to fans’ complaints about being exiled to Northampton?
I’m on a panel at an event today (organised by BOSS magazine and a group called STAND Against Modern Football), asking how fans can make their voices heard in protest at what is being done to their game.
My advice to Coventry fans is simple: Take inspiration from your city’s most famous protester and do a Lady Godiva.
On the day of the first home game, strip naked and ride on horses (or bikes) into the city centre, bringing it to a standstill, with the names of the companies or individuals you deem *responsible for your shocking plight covering your naughty bits.
Name them, shame them and make global news.
At the very least, your city, SISU, ACL, the administrators, the Football League and the nation will understand what your football club means to you.