Short-term agreement reached over Ricoh

Coventry City will play their final three scheduled League One games of the season at the Ricoh Arena after the agreement of a short-term deal.

Paul Appleton, joint administrator for Coventry City FC Ltd and Arena Coventry Ltd, made the announcement in a short statement on Thursday morning.

City have been locked in a year-long rent row with ACL, their landlords.

"We apologise profusely to fans about the confusion. We are delighted this has now been resolved," said the club.

"We can now look forward to playing current league leaders Doncaster on Friday 29 March in the hope of doing the double over them," added the club statement.

"Moving forward, we hope that we can continue a constructive dialogue with ACL with the aim of securing a sustainable future for the club at the Ricoh Arena."

I hope ACL have either got money up-front or personal guarantees. I wouldn't trust this lot as far as I could throw them.

It's all posturing and brinksmanship.

Both sides will eventually compromise.

MPs demand openness over Ricoh Arena row legal bill

TWO Coventry MPs are demanding Ricoh Arena bosses tell taxpayers the extent of the legal bill for court action against the Sky Blues.

The call comes after the part-council-owned Arena Coventry Limited declined to tell the Telegraph how much had been spent so far in its year-long legal dispute with Coventry City Football Club.

ACL is a private company jointly owned by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs Charity, which made £1million profits last year.

But it has effectively been subsidised by council taxpayers since January – after the club refused to pay £1.3m rent for using the stadium.

The council in private, fearing ACL could be heading for insolvency, unanimously agreed to invest £14m – initially from “council balances” set aside for future council spending.

The £14m bought out ACL’s mortgage, with ACL now paying back the mortgage to the council at much cheaper interest rates.

But sources speculate ACL’s legal bill could have already spiralled beyond £1million after this month’s High Court action.

Jim Cunningham (Labour, Coventry South) said: “As council taxpayers’ money is involved, they should tell us the legal costs, which are ongoing.”

Geoffrey Robinson (Labour, Coventry North West), a former Sky Blues chairman who wrote off £20millon of personal money when current Sky Blues owners Sisu took over in 2007, said: “ACL, the council and the charity are wasting money on an unnecessary load of legal battles.

“They should be transparent about the costs and why they have done this. Where’s it going to end?

“The way to solve it is to get the charity out and make a new start with Sisu.”

ACL wants a takeover of the club by a business it would be happy to also see invest in the stadium. Sisu has been fighting ACL’s legal attempts to force a club takeover.

Conservative opposition councillor John Blundell said he was not aware of the “inevitably expensive” High Court legal costs, but added: “The legal costs, if reasonable, are justified if this results in clarity (a club takeover), working with somebody with the football club and the city at heart. I think Sisu have lost everybody’s trust.”

With Coventry City Football Club Ltd now in voluntary administration and CCFC (Holdings) Ltd still owned by Sisu, the Telegraph asked for a breakdown of ACL’s legal bills.

An ACL statement said: “This is commercially confidential information” and “ACL has made provisions for legal costs”.

It added: “ACL is an independent business. It is funding this action from its own financial resources.”