Council urges football club owner to drop legal action if it wants to play in stadium in city
Coventry City Council has told the owner of Coventry City Football Club that it should drop all litigation related to the Ricoh Arena to enable the club to play there next season.
Its agreement to use the ground is due to expire and the English Football League in February issued a warning that it would meet on 25 April with a view to expelling Coventry City unless it could explain where it would play home matches.
It said: “The EFL considers it untenable for a member club to seek to continue competing in its league competition if it is unable to stage its home matches.
“However, it understands, that despite the complex challenges facing Coventry City at this current time, it is the club’s preference to extend their stay at the Ricoh Arena for future seasons and the EFL would view this as a sensible and suitable solution to the matter.”
Sisu Capital, which owns the club, has been involved in a lengthy legal dispute with the council and arena owner Wasps Rugby Club.
It last November said it would take the matter to the Supreme Court after losing a judicial review.
A council statement said: “The never-ending and drawn out litigation must be dropped.
“It is evident that the continuation of litigation is alienating [Sisu Capital] from the partners in the city who they should be working with to secure a successful and sustainable future for Coventry City Football Club.”
The council the time and cost of defending litigation “consistently…found in our favour over a number of years, is both disruptive and distracting” and had a “corrosive impact on partnership working”, a view it said was shared by Wasps.
An open letter to Sisu signed by the council’s Labour leader George Duggins and Conservative opposition leader Gary Ridley said they wanted to see the club play in the city and preferably at the Ricoh Arena but if Sisu did not want to, they were willing to work with it to find some alternative.
They said Sisu had told the council that to stop the litigation, it wanted “a stadium development supported by the council in Coventry with enabling development on reasonable terms”.
The council said Sisu must “be more specific with us about planning and enablement of the development of a new stadium” and said it had failed to deliver any detailed plans for such a large development.
Any application would be “dealt with completely impartially and in accordance with our statutory duties”, the council said.
Its open letter went on: “Any accusation that the council is being obstructive or treating them differently is unfounded and untrue.”
It said the only realistic way for the club to play in Coventry in the immediate future was to stay at the Ricoh Arena, “so in order to give the English Football League the assurance it understandably demands for next season and for fans to be able to carry on supporting the Sky Blues…Sisu has no choice but to cease for all time the legal action, without any pre-conditions.
“It is Sisu’s right to pursue legal action but if they wish to continue to do so, we would urge them to divest themselves of the football club so it can have a secure future in this city.”
Law firm Fieldfisher, which has acted for Sisu, has been approached for comment.
Mark Smulian
