COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Coventry City Football Club (CCFC) has been given 21 days to pay its outstanding rent, according to the Ricoh Arena's operators.



Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) runs the stadium on behalf of owners Coventry City Council and the Alan Edwards Higgs Trust charity.

ACL said the club owed £1.1m in rent arrears and could face a winding-up order if it did not settle its debts.

The League One club said the rent was too high and should be renegotiated.

At £1.28m a year, it said the rent was believed to be the highest in both League One and the Championship.

In a statement it said it was "disappointed" by ACL's decision to issue a statutory demand, rather than "negotiate a level of rent which the club can afford and which is in line with the rent paid by other clubs".

It said other clubs in the league paid on average less than £170,000 a year and, unlike Coventry City, often made revenue from match day parking as well as food and drink sales.

£1.6m debts

In August, the club was taken to the High Court in Birmingham after stopping payments of £100,000 a month in rent to ACL in April.

The court told Coventry City FC to top up a deposit fund to cover ACL's unpaid invoices.

ACL said, despite negotiations over the past 10 months, no solution had been found and it was owed a total of £1.6m by the club.

It said it was now taking action to protect its own "long-term financial commitments" and those of its employees and shareholders.

The operators added that the club had "consistently exceeded income" and had "no contingency plans" to guard against a lengthy return to the Premier League.

The club first moved into the stadium in 2005, four years after relegation from the Premier League.

ACL said Coventry City FC now faced a choice between a declaration of insolvency or a winding-up order.

Coventry City Football Club statement

We are disappointed by ACL’s actions today to issue a statutory demand to Coventry City Football Club rather than, as we had requested, sitting down with us to negotiate a level of rent which the Club can afford and which is in line with the rent paid by other clubs.

For reference, ACL has been charging CCFC an annual rent of £1.28 million, which we understand is the highest in both League One and the Championship.

We understand that the average annual rent paid by League One clubs (excluding CCFC) is less than £170,000 and that the average in the Championship is less than £290,000. All other clubs which rent their stadia get full access to 100% of match day food, beverage and car parking revenues, unlike CCFC.

The Club’s objective in requesting these negotiations with ACL has been only to bring about a state of commercial normality, where CCFC pays the same level of rent and has access to the same type of ancillary revenues as the other football clubs with which it competes. It is unsustainable for CCFC to be put at a severe financial disadvantage to its peers.

While we have been seeking to normalise the rent, we have continued to pay match day costs to ensure that ACL is not left out-of-pocket. These costs amount to over £250,000 per season, much more than the average rent paid by League One clubs.

In addition to defraying ACL’s match day costs, the Club has been subsidising ACL’s general overheads ever since the Sky Blues started playing at the Ricoh Arena, amounting to many millions of pounds over seven years.

The Club remains committed to the city and people of Coventry.

However, its viability depends on it finding an alternative home ground where it can afford to play.