Hi guys,
Lately, there's been an affinity between our sets of fans due to CCFC's diabolical owners once trying to 'rescue' your club.
As some / many of you will know, CCFC is currently being held to ransom by Mayfair-based investment company SISU. A company that no longer has any interest in the football club it owns (if it ever did), only in seizing control of the stadium it plays in.
To keep this as short as possible:
They have tried to do this by not paying rent since April 2012, in an effort to destabilise the Council-owned company that runs the stadium Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) and get the Ricoh Arena on the cheap.
The Council stepped in and bailed out ACL in January with a multimillion pound loan.
A legal dispute followed over non-payment of rent. SISU have also had the nerve to take the Council to the High Court over their bailout of ACL under the umbrella of 'Judicial Review'!
What has happened at our club is nothing short of a disgrace and should never again be allowed to happen at any club in this country. It is the perfect example of why fan involvement at board level (the likes of which you see more of abroad) should be encouraged rather than letting a bunch of self-interest faceless investors mismanage their way into the mess we are now witnessing.
We, the fans, are more or less powerless to do anything about the situation and have been forced to watch our club being dragged through the dirt. We've been treated as nothing more than pawns in a game of brinksmanship between SISU and the Council.
The latest in this long running saga is that SISU are threatening to take the club out of the City, claiming they have been 'locked out' of the Ricoh Arena, something vehemently denied by ACL.
Our local paper, the Coventry Telegraph, have started a petition to put pressure on those responsible to sort out this mess and ensure the club stays in the City.
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/keep-coventry-city-in-coventry-3414872
It would be greatly appreciated by us City fans if you Saints would take the a second to sign the petition - name and email only.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keep-city-in-coventry/
I'd like to think that had it worked out the other way round we'd have done the same.
Good luck next season and congratulations on securing your place in the Premiership.
Jim