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.
so if its speculation how do we know nothing was agreed?
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.
so much for secret talks wonder who the sources are?
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.
surely it was true sky blue who scooped this exclusive?
We reported the talks would take place by 'Friday at the latest' - while other media outlets have reported the talks were taking place today.
so what
As we revealed, Coventry city councillors had been briefed on Monday by council officer Chris West, who is also a Ricoh director.
no great scandal it is his job to do that
They were informed the talks would take place today.
isnt the important thing that they are taking place - diaries can change
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.
there is a media blackout (see first paragraph)
Both sides are observing a 'media blackout'.
there you go
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.
and yet sources give details of the meeting
It is also rumoured there had been no full discussion yet over any potential return to the Ricoh.
so there could have been but might not have been
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.
unless they change their diaries and meet today or tomorrow or monday. Surely to get the CVA agreed then common ground in this meeting will have had to be reached
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.
no they get 25.95% of the debt that the administrator has accepted
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.
did all directors need to be there? Chris WEst is from the Council too and Paul Harris the Alan Higgs Charity
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.
why does PWKH represent the council ?
Negotiations between the two sides would be the first since March – when the club went into administration in a bitter legal wrangle with ACL.
negotiations regarding rent etc ceased end of January
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.
why so desperate?
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.
wonder if ACL & Council will insist the judicial review is ceased also? so if the dont sign then CCFC dont come back to play at the Ricoh, but the second round SISU of talks are only a perhaps so no guarantee they will there either
The club wants CCFC Limited to exit administration so that a Football League transfer embargo can be lifted and new players signed.
is that the only reason?
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.
assuming that the CVA meeting is not adjourned again
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.
possibly but we do not know - they might just be willing to discuss a very low rent knowing how much CCFC can make in ticket sales at the Ricoh
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.
No really a break down in trust who would have thought it after all this time. Are ACL or its stakeholders even considering such a sale or even a part sale, ACL is apparently bust according to TF so most unlikely to get their stake back from SISU. Certainly ownership could get SISU out of a big growing money pit
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.
it was a loan that CCC got from the Public Works Loan Body not taxpayer money given as a grant, it is being repaid with interest
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
and yet Northampton have done something similar and SISU still control CCFC
. Mind you doesn't leave much for staff/player wages, or legal bills, or administration costs, or transport costs, or VAT payments, or National Insurance payments, or purchasing development land, or the cost of getting planning permission approved, or the cost of new road infrastructure. In view of all this wouldn't SISU be best advised in opposing the CVA as well, and thus saving having to pay ACL over 1/2 a million.:claping hands:
