Coventry City FC (The Bantams, Sky Blues)

The council did not force the club out of the ground at all. The club stopped paying rent and eventually cleared off to Northampton, without 90% of the fans. They have mismanaged the situation from the start. Why would they give the club land? Sisu could have bought the Ricoh but their tactic was to try and get it for nothing. They were wrong-footed by a rugby club who wanted a ground and were run by competent people. That is now all history and it will not change. This latest story in the Telegraph is actually a non-story. It changes nothing. There was never going to be a new stadium and this may just be the start of the backtracking on the whole shambolic project.

I've tried until now not to post on the City topic (other than the one under the FA Cup Final Day topic), as it's a subject extremely close to my heart, but... short and sweet : I agree TOTALLY with your statements made above, Mr D Di. Personally, I get rather fed up when people 'support' the efforts - or rather lack of them - of Sisu, without admitting the reality of where CCFC currently stand, but more importantly, how the heck we got here.... CCFC/Sisu, the Wasps, you, I and EVERYBODY ELSE were given the opportunity to put in a bid for Coventry City Council's share of Arena Coventry Ltd. ONLY the Wasps chose to do so. It therefore follows that everybody else - including Sisu - had chosen NOT to do so. So a personal request from me.... Sisu, PLEASE stop bleeting about the Wasps, about CCC, about only being a tenant at the Ricoh and not the 'owner' (although the Wasps are not the 'owner', they have a lease for 250 years, the land is still owned by CCC and a number of other shareholders) etc etc etc etc. You, Sisu, had the opportunity take on the 'lease' through ACL yourselves, but you chose not to..... It is therefore my conclusion that Sisu didn't want to own the lease; they only wanted to own the Ricoh as a whole, but were not prepared to pay a realistic price for it. This has been Sisu's plan right from the VERY outset. Unfortunately, circumstances changed along the way. But Sisu's plan didn't. So Sisu lost out. Tough......

They could 'sell' them some land, but not give it. That may well be illegal. Why should they give it? The football club is a private business.

If the council hadn't squandered public money on building a new white elephant then CCFC would still be playing at Highfield Road.

I definitely disagree with that, Dutchman. The club had great ideas for Arena 2000 as it was then called, even bidding for it to become the national stadium at one time. They were talking about a sliding pitch, a covered roof and a large capacity. (I still have the brochure!) This was Bryan Richardson's vanity project which was eventually scaled back when Wembley won the bid. We must remember that Highfield Road was actually sold well before the club moved out and we had to rent it back until the Ricoh was built. But the money had gone and the council actually stepped in to rescue the project which was in ruins with the real prospect of nowhere for the club to play. Richardson was the reason we were put in that mess, so it is unfair to blame the council as at the time it was seen as a sound investment and the club was a much better going concern than now.

The club was doomed the minute the council became involved in any shape or form. I said so at the time even when everyone else was saying it was a good idea.

We were certainly doomed if the council hadn't bailed the stadium out. Where would we have played - Nuneaton? The council acted in good faith but have been shafted by incompetent management of CCFC over the years.

Yes, Mr D - Richardson ruined the club with his vain ideas and mismanagement, and SISU have just taken it down even further Can't see much, if any, blame on the council for what has occurred

I'm afraid that is complete and utter nonsense. By the time the council had got involved (at the request of the club I hasten to add, who lobbied fans repeatedly to get them to get involved) HR had already been sold for a pittance by Richardson to a housing agency to build on and being rented back. And the figures bandied around at the time suggest the rentback of HR was the same as the rent they ended up paying for the Ricoh (c. £100k p.m.), so all this talk of 'overcharging' is pie-in-the-sky. A brand new stadium twice the size for the same price as the old one. If the figures suggested at the time are true, CCFC actually paid MORE in rent to the housing agency than they received from the sale in the first place. And BR paid himself 10% of the sale price as a bonus for getting such a great deal! And as has been pointed out, 'giving' land would be amounting to state-aid and therefore illegal (unless you're West Ham), and something SISU are deadset against it would appear given their constant legal challenges on this issue. As for selling it them, why would you want to sell land to someone who has spent the last 4-5 years trying to bankrupt you? I still can't believe the appeal was allowed. It basically suggests that they should have turned done a good deal that saw them get make a return on the money they provided, in a shorter time span, working with a company who were doing things properly and in good faith, and instead let a money-grabbing organisation who have not acted in good faith at any point in the proceedings force them out of business entirely and lose the Arena for nothing. The law is an ass.

Thank you, AD. I'm glad I'm not the only one to remember it as it was. Bear in mind that Sisu have not won their appeal though, only the right to have it heard. I would doubt they will win it in the long run. Couldn't agree more about their total lack of good faith, and that's being polite!

Who gave planning permission for housing to be built at Highfield Road?

That question makes no sense, Dutchman. They had sold the ground for housing development. Unfortunately, they frittered away the money from the sale through mismanagement. Planning permission is a complete non-issue. Councils have very strict guidelines on why they can refuse it. Developers simply go to appeal which they will win if it has been refused on spurious grounds and which costs a fortune in legal costs. You seem to have an anti-council agenda here, which in some areas may be justified. But they were never the bad guys in this and went above and beyond for CCFC. I never wanted the club to leave Highfield Road if I'm honest, but Richardson was determined to get the new stadium without the ability to deliver the project.

In what way did the council go "above and beyond for CCFC" when they claimed that ACL was "profitable" without CCFC even though the accounts showed they were losing £400,000 a year?

The council recognised that CCFC was part of the community and stepped in to ensure the stadium was built. Without their intervention I have no doubt that the club would have gone under. People with agendas have been blaming the council for the club's problems for a years. But those problems are entirely of the club's own making under successive incompetent managements. Sorry you are unable to see beyond dislike of the council, for whatever reason, and appreciate the bigger picture.

The stadium was an attempt by the council to buy votes using public money and like every other council funded project it was guaranteed to fail.