Coventry City face 15-point penalty as part of club faces liquidation

[RalphC]

Coventry City are facing a 15-point deduction after creditors rejected a deal over debts and left part of the club on the brink of liquidation.

They are still set to start the League One season at Crawley on Saturday.

Coventry City FC Ltd went into administration in March following a rent-row with Arena Coventry Limited.

It now faces liquidation after ACL, which runs the Ricoh Arena, rejected a Company Voluntary Arrangement at a creditors' meeting on Friday.

Had the CVA, a payment scheme between an ailing company and its creditors, been accepted, the club may have been able to come out of administration.

 

However ACL, which operates the stadium on behalf of Coventry City Council and the Alan Higgs Centre Trust, expressed its concerns over the club's agreed groundshare at Northampton's Sixfields Stadium for the next three seasons and the club's financial future, leading it to reject the CVA alongside Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

A Coventry club statement read: "It is with great regret that a proposed CVA has been rejected by ACL.

"It means CCFC Ltd is likely to be put into liquidation which is expected to result in a points penalty for the club going into the new season.

"The football club and the Alan Higgs Centre Trust accepted the administrator's CVA, but the City Council, through ACL, have chosen to reject it, leading to possible liquidation and the risk of a 15-point deduction.

"The club will hold urgent meetings with the Football League this afternoon to go through the next steps for the football club."

The day prior to the creditors' meeting, ACL lodged an official complaint against the Football League over the League One side's 34-mile move to Northampton.

It claimed that the Otium Entertainment Group, who recently took over the Sky Blues from previous owners Sisu whom they have links with, had no right to request the move, as its takeover of City had not been completed.

And ACL released a statement saying that it was unhappy with the proposals in the CVA put forward by Coventry CCFC Ltd joint-administrator Paul Appleton.

 

"This decision was based on ACL's twin aims," a statement read. "First, to keep Coventry City Football Club playing in Coventry; and second, to ensure that Coventry City Football Club is financially viable for the next few years and beyond.

"This last point is especially important given that CCFC has been the subject of a 'catastrophic insolvency' in the hands of its previous owners.

"The CVA proposals put forward by Mr Appleton simply do not address these obvious concerns. And these concerns are not only the concerns of ACL - they are the concerns of all Sky Blues supporters, and should be the central concerns of both The Football League and The Football Association.

"Mr Appleton has the ability to put forward new proposals, and we would welcome these as soon as possible."

In response to ACL's statement, Appleton said: "We do not understand the comments being made by ACL with regard to the ability to put forward new proposals. The proposals ACL required simply did not comply with the law."

Under the terms of the deal between ACL and Coventry City over the Ricoh Arena, which has been the Sky Blues' home since 2005, the club had been paying £1.2m in rent per year, and only received a limited share of the catering and parking revenues from matchdays.

Eventually, the Sky Blues' debts to ACL mounted to £1.3m leading to CCFC Ltd going into administration and the club being deducted 10 points by the Football League.

The rent row resulted in the club agreeing a three-year groundshare with Northampton, and searching for a new permanent home in the city.

But in a bid to keep the club at the Ricoh, ACL offered a reduced rent of of £150,000 in League One, rising to £400,000 if the club returns to the Championship.

[The Mayor Of Simpleton]

Coventry City could very well be facing their last ever game, which is very sad indeed.

 

However, things have gone from bad to worse since they left Highfield Road.  They don't own their new stadium, the match day attendance figure has dwindled in recent seasons, and the Otium v ACL spat has been going on for years resulting in Coventry having to play home games in Northampton.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Coventry fold, and an extra promotion place in League 2 come into effect.  I have heard that a new Coventry side could play at Coventry RFC in the Midland Alliance next season (as they are pretty flexible with allowing 23 teams), but then Coventry City Council will be left with a white elephant in the form of the Ricoh Arena.  What will happen to the Ricoh Arena?  Will it be demolished?  Without a tenant, it's not going to be of any use to anybody.

 

The selfishness of certain people could well have killed a former Premiership side.   Disgusting.

[Karen Browne]

Looks like just a ten point deduction

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23548760

[Eastside Urchin]

Touch

[The Mayor Of Simpleton]

Could it be that SISU who now own the FL "Golden Ticket" are/will try and force ACL (who own the Ricoh Arena) into bankruptcy and then try and make a move to buy the Ricoh at a knock down price?

 

ACL is made up of an equal partnership of Coventry City Council and a Charity. The Council voted against the CVA as they want their money from the Football Club, the charity voted for the CVA because they own the sporting academy where the Football Club academy is based.

 

In effect, Coventry City could become the next MK Dons and move wherever they want.

 

Loos like checkmate.

[Big J R]

As Adam said in a previous post.........

 

Greed and selfishness is killing the sport.