Coventry City and Ricoh Arena bosses are refusing to comment on speculation that negotiations over the club's administration and playing at the Ricoh took place yesterday - and produced no agreement.
Telegraph sources claim the talks started yesterday at a hotel venue "closer to London than Coventry", and that club owners Sisu's boss Joy Seppala was present.
The Telegraph
exclusively revealed on Wednesday that talks were back on between the two warring parties - after both sides agree to the negotiations at a meeting on Monday with administrator Paul Appleton.
We reported the talks would take place by 'Friday at the latest' - while other media outlets have reported the talks were taking place today.
As we revealed, Coventry city councillors had been briefed on Monday by council officer Chris West, who is also a Ricoh director.
They were informed the talks would take place today.
The part city council-owned Ricoh firm Arena Coventry Limited (ACL) and the Sky Blues have refused since yesterday to confirm or deny that the talks have already taken place.
Both sides are observing a 'media blackout'.
Sources claim the meeting concluded yesterday without any agreement over whether both sides as creditors of Coventry City Football Club Limited would sign off
Mr Appleton's proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) which would enable the club to come out of administration.
It is also rumoured there had been no full discussion yet over any potential return to the Ricoh.
Sources also claim the next time all parties will sit around a table is at the next creditors' meeting with Mr Appleton on Tuesday - when Mr Appleton will hope the CVA is agreed.
Under his CVA proposals, ACL would get £590,000 return on CCFC's £1.3million rent debts from a £1.5m sale of CCFC Ltd to Sisu-related company Otium.
Sources claim Mr West and ACL director Paul Harris were present at yesterday's alleged meeting - but Coventry City Council chief executive Martin Reeves, also an ACL director, was not.
It is alleged council leaders were not present either. The council - which is a 50 per cent shareholder in ACL alongside the Alan Edward Higgs Charity - is usually represented by ACL director Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen, who is not believed to be taking part in the talks.
Negotiations between the two sides would be the first since March – when the club went into administration in a bitter legal wrangle with ACL.
It has been viewed as a last-ditch attempt to
prevent Coventry City moving out of the city and playing 'home' games at Northampton Town for up to five years under Football League-sanctioned plans, while a new stadium is built in the Coventry area.
It is understood Coventry City owners Sisu/Otium agreed to negotiate because they desperately want ACL to sign Mr Appleton’s proposed CVA.
It is thought Coventry City will insist on ACL signing the CVA before there can be any second round of discussions over playing at the Ricoh.
The club wants CCFC Limited to exit administration so that a Football League transfer embargo can be lifted and new players signed.
The earliest the club can come out of administration is three weeks into the new season which starts in ten days – as a 28-day “cooling off” period must follow any CVA agreement.
Mr Appleton has stated the alternative to CCFC Ltd exiting administration via a CVA is liquidation – which could incur a further 15-point League deduction from the club’s 2013/14 League One campaign.
There are claims ACL would be willing to discuss terms over rent payments and who receives matchday revenues – after it previously offered to lower annual rent from £1.3m to £400,000.
Many believe the major stumbling blocks to any ultimate agreement are a breakdown in trust between the two sides - and that Ms Seppala will seek 100 per cent ownership of the Ricoh, and that ACL will not want to sell on those terms.
Another major problem is Sisu’s outstanding High Court application for a judicial review against Coventry City Council’s £14m taxpayer deal in January to buy out ACL’s ‘mortgage’ bank loan.
The club claims the council acted against ‘state aid’ laws, created unfair competition and sought to “wrest control” of the club from its lawful owners – allegations the council denies