ACL consider options as talks with Sky Blues collapse

The company which runs the Ricoh Arena is considering its options after talks between themselves and the Sky Blues collapsed on Thursday.



Stadium company ACL, which is jointly owned by Coventry City Council and the Alan Higgs Charity, issued a statement claiming talks with club owners Sisu over the on-going rent issue have collapsed.

ACL claim the cash-strapped League One club owe £1.347million in arrears after refusing to pay the cost of playing at the stadium since February last year.

They say an agreement was reached for the club to pay £400,000 per annum in rent while the Sky Blues remain in League One.

The deal would also see ACL waive more than £300,000 of the rent arrears, with a generous approach to clearing the total balance and the club were guaranteed to continue receiving matchday revenues.

But instead of confirming, Sky Blues chief executive Tim Fisher asked for the arrears to be cleared.

And he also wants the statutory demand for the payment of rent, which was issued in December 2012, to be dropped, or else the club will look to build a new venue elsewhere.

“There’s simply no point in continuing these discussions while the Club, under Sisu’s ownership, continues to behave in this manner,” said Nicholas Carter, chairman of , ACL.

“To spend many hours engaging in positive and constructive discussions, leading to a detailed point by point discussion of a proposed Heads of Terms Agreement resulting in verbal agreement and handshakes all round; only to then renege when it came to signing the Agreement, is truly reprehensible behaviour.

“We will only be prepared to resume these conversations if John Clarke, Tim Fisher and Mark Labovitch sign up to the deal to which they agreed. “

The Board of ACL believes that Sisu, have no intention of entering into a meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue.

“If the Club Directors can’t or won’t follow through on the Agreement they participated in creating, then we suggest to them that the time has come to consider offering ownership of CCFC to an outside buyer better placed to run the Club’s financial operations.

“Make no mistake, now is the time for Sisu to pay up or sell up and get out of Coventry.”

The Sky Blues have yet to comment on the collapse of talks but are still expected to be hosting Crewe at the Ricoh on February 23.

pay up or sell up

And not before time.

Neither side in this comes out very well. CCFC have reneged on a contract, hence are not to be trusted. ACL have let this drag on far too long, and are not up to the job of running such an enterprise.

Ricoh Arena owners seize Coventry City's income

RICOH Arena bosses today dramatically upped the stakes in their dispute with Coventry City by serving debt orders which could see the stadium recouping rent arrears by May.

The legal move would lawfully entitle Arena Coventry Limited to recover the £1.3million rent by collecting any monies owed to the club by other companies and third parties.

The third parties named in the interim “Third Party Debt Orders” served on the club today include Huddersfield Town.

They are expected to pay the Sky Blues compensation for this week enticing team manager Mark Robins away from Coventry City five months into a three-year contract.

ACL - the company owned by Coventry City Council and the Alan Edward Higgs Trust - would now potentially have first call on that money.

ACL could also have first call on rate rebates from Coventry City Council to Coventry City Football Club.

Jacky Isaac, ACL interim chief executive, said the interim order prevents any money being paid from the named third parties to Coventry City ahead of a final debt order issued by a court judge.

The earliest opportunity for a final order enabling ACL to obtain the money is May 2.

Ms Isaac said today's interim order also gives the banks seven days to reveal how much money is in Coventry City’s bank account.

SISU told by Coventry MP Bob Ainsworth to stop 'bullying' tactics


Coventry MP Bob Ainsworth speaks in Westminster Hall

COVENTRY City’s owners have been told to stop threatening the city council in an attempt to “bully their way to control” of the Ricoh Arena .

In a speech in Parliament, city MP Bob Ainsworth also revealed the Football League would block any attempt to move the club permanently outside of the city.

Sky Blues chiefs had suggested they could build a new stadium in south Warwickshire as the increasingly bitter negotiations over the Ricoh Arena rent broke down.

The club have withheld rent payments for 12 months and ACL – the Coventry City Council and Higgs Charity-owned company that runs the stadium – has taken legal action to try to recover the £1.3million in rent arrears.

ACL’s finances have come under pressure and the council stepped in to buy the stadium mortgage from Yorkshire Bank – lowering the repayments made by ACL.

But Mr Ainsworth claimed in Parliament that the club are trying to discredit the council over the deal with Yorkshire Bank and challenge the rental agreement – which dates back to 2002, five years before SISU bought the club.

He told fellow MPs: “Many of us accept the need for a realistic approach to the lease and management issues if the stadium is to reach its full potential and changes would get support for the right partner at the right time.

"But SISU are not entitled to bully their way to control over an asset they never provided. They must prove they are not simply a predator with greed running through their DNA before they could expect such treatment.

"The club owners have been on rent strike, they say they are fighting for a more realistic settlement for a league one club, while Arena Coventry Limited, jointly owned by the city council and the Alan Higgs Charity, believe the agenda has been to destabilise the Arena Company and thereby gain control at a fire sale price.

"A much lowered rent has been offered but the dispute goes on.

“While the dispute between the parties on the rent level has been in the public domain for many months and inevitably there is much innuendo and allegation that surrounds this kind of dispute, there is one aspect of it that seems key that has not had any public exposure, but if we are to go forward it needs to be flushed out.

“The football club owners are challenging the validity of the original rental agreement made back in 2002 and are using that challenge in an attempt to discredit the city council’s motives for paying £14million to the Yorkshire Bank in December for the stadiums debts.

"I cannot see what right the club owners have to issue threats on this.

“Martin Reeves and Chris West from the city council and ACL dismiss the threats as “desperate stuff”.

“However, the club owners must in my view be prepared to publicly justify their threats and allegations or drop the issue if we are to find a way forward and I challenge them to do that.”

Supporters’ group Sky Blue Trust has proposed both sides in the rent dispute enter binding arbitration with football finance expert Dr John Beech.

But Mr Ainsworth said the club wanted him instead to examine ACLs finances and not the club’s.

“Board member Mark Labovitch indicated his enthusiasm for this course of action; however the response I have received today is an indication of how difficult it is to deal with Joy Seppala and her team.

“The response I have had seeks to turn the binding arbitration suggestion into an investigation of ACLs finances, set the agenda for the arbitrators, but of course there is no suggestion the football club’s finances and structure should be looked into.

“A reasonable response to the proposition that the dispute go to binding arbitration was an opportunity to win trust which they absolutely failed to grasp.”

On the threats to the Sky Blues out of the Ricoh Arena and the city, Ainsworth said he had assurances from the Football League that any relocation had to be temporary.

He said: “They have said ‘any application to move the club to a stadium outside the city would need to be considered by the Board of the Football League.

"In doing so, the Board would require the club to demonstrate that it had a clear plan for returning to Coventry within a prescribed timeframe’. I hope the League rules will not allow SISU to do anything like that done at Wimbledon.”

He ended his speech by calling for the rent dispute to be resolved but said he doubted SISU’s intentions.

He also asked the government to consider introducing controls on football clubs in line with proposals for licensing drawn up by fans’ group Supporters Direct.

“This dispute has gone on for far too long and needs to be brought to a conclusion. I fear that despite their words SISU have no interest in those things,” Mr Ainsworth added.

“There has been a reduced rent offer. If they want to be taken seriously the time has long passed for them to respond clearly by accepting or putting a counter proposal, rather than obfuscation and delay.

"Will they come clean about the threats they are making over the 2002 rental agreement?”

Also speaking in the debate, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said the Government would be willing to send an official from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to try to arbitrate in the dispute, if requested.

Pay up or get out!

SISU are in clear breech of the agreement (If they claim the agreement is unfair it ought have been raised at the time when they took CCFC over, which implies they didn't carry out adequate due diligence).

The time for talking is over.

Coventry facing threat of administration over rent claim

Coventry are facing the threat of administration after the owners of the Ricoh Stadium went to the High Court claiming they are owed £1.3m in rent.

Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) has made an application to the High Court in London to request that it make an administration order against the League One club.

The Sky Blues' owner, hedge fund Sisu, dispute the terms of the lease.

On 1 March chief executive Tim Fisher admitted insolvency was a possibility.

ACL chairman Nicholas Carter said: "It is highly unfortunate that we have had to take this course of legal action. Had we not taken this action, then the alternative might have been catastrophic for CCFC.

"We are owed a considerable amount of money in rent arrears. While it is imperative that ACL takes action to recover these arrears and to stop the arrears growing, it is important for us to find a solution that can provide for the survival of the Sky Blues.

"Hopefully this action will ultimately put CCFC on a stable financial footing for the future."