I have been going through Reddit for quite sometime recently, and only a few of the stories get my attention. One such post was from a user called covmatty1, who came up with a rant explaining the hardships the club he supports has been going through.
It was about Coventry City, an English club playing in the second tier of the English League. Frankly, I try to stay as far away as possible from anything related to English football. However, this story had a certain edge to it. It was a story about fans fighting with their club council who have planned to play the club home games at a stadium that is 35 miles away from the city.
In case you are not aware of the story, let me give you some background information.
Coventry City were in crisis after they failed to pay their ground (Ricoh Arena, a 32,500 seater state-of-the-art stadium opened in 2005) rent for over a year and were forced to play at Sixfields stadium, which is 35 miles from the current ground. Obviously, the fans didn’t like it. And now the Sky Blue fans are holding protests against the club’s move to play all their home games at Sixfields for at least the next three years.
The problem, however, is the club’s attitude towards the fans. The fact that the board expects home fans to undertake a 70-mile round trip to every home game bewilders me. Petitions are being rejected, as are the proposals of meetings between the club owners SISU and the Supporter’s Trust without any consideration. The supporters are now going out on mass protest marches through the city. Fans will meet in Gosford Green park, the place where Coventry played their first match a century ago.
After intense research about the whole incident, I figured out things that just don’t fit into the story.
Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), the organization that operates the Ricoh Arena, admitted that they had never closed their doors for Coventry City and were more than happy to let Coventry play at the Ricoh Arena rent-free until things got sorted out.
ACL’s director Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen said: “If we were a commercial company, we wouldn’t have been talking [to the club], and they wouldn’t have completed the season [at the stadium]. But we’re not a normal business and we have an absolute clear understanding that the Sky Blues should play in Coventry. It’s like someone you love, someone who’s part of your life being taken away.”
Meanwhile, SISU plans to build a new ground somewhere in Coventry so as to move closer to the fans. What I fail to wrap my head around is the fact that they have the funds to build a new stadium, but are somehow not able to pay the £1.2 million in rent arrears for an already present state-of-the art stadium.
I don’t have a good source here, but paperwork suggests that Coventry was losing roughly around £6m a year, of which the rent of the stadium just covers a quarter of the debt. No one knows where the rest of the money went. The club officials have always turned a blind eye towards the fans whenever they have asked for relevant information. None of this adds up, and it looks like a hedge fund exploring any avenue possible to make a quick buck.
The fans aren’t asking for financial aid. They just want the FA and Football League to follow the set of rules that was designated for a reason and keep the club in the city the fans call home. The best possible thing for the club would now be to force liquidation and let the Football League decide who gets the golden share. The club can then reform going forward.
Coventry City fans congregate at Gosford Green park, where the club played it’s first-ever game (Source: covmatty1′s imgur account)
The fight is against the hedge funds and the corporate culture, and what it needs is a lot of support. The fans have already decided not to travel, and if things stay the way they have been recently, the club will possibly lose a whole generation of fans. These are the times when rivalries are put aside, and the love of the game unites fans from across the country.
Terrible things can happen when sport becomes a business and the fans are disregarded. A hedge fund doesn’t remember the first game of football it watched. A hedge fund doesn’t compete with a friend over who has the most team shirts and merchandise. A hedge fund doesn’t know what it means to hug a stranger out of sheer happiness. A hedge fund doesn’t care about football at all.
Wherever you are, whichever club you support, if you care enough and want to fight the suits taking over football and bring it back to the people without whom the beautiful game isn’t beautiful any more, sign this petition here and let the Sky Blues fans know that they are not alone: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/keep-city-in-coventry/
