Mark Labovitch says Coventry-born Dallas-based soccer agent Martin Kelman needs to put proposal to board
A Sky Blues director says an American businessman who has come up with a proposal to get the club back to Coventry should contact the board if he’s serious.
Mark Labovitch, CCFC non-executive director, responded after Coventry-born Dallas-based soccer agent Martin Kelman
revealed he planned to raise funds and negotiate a rent deal with Ricoh Arena operators Arena Coventry Ltd to get the club back to its former home.
A long-running rent dispute between the football club and stadium bosses has seen the club move to play ‘home’ games 35 miles away in Northampton.
Mr Labovitch said: “If Mr Kelman has a serious proposal he should really put it across to the club’s board or the club’s owner in the normal way.”
He added: “We only comment when people act in a normal, credible professional way and come and talk to the club, or in this case its owner.
“If someone isn’t going to come and contact the club’s owner directly, how can you have a discussion about anything?
“I can’t speak for the club’s owner but, as an independent director, I would always advise an owner really not to comment on anyone who hasn’t come and put his idea in person or even sent her a letter.”
Mr Labovitch also said the club had seen many approaches come and go during his time at the club.
There was a reported bid from former CCFC director Gary Hoffman in 2011 and in 2013 he was believed to be working on a bid with American property tycoon Preston Haskell IV.
Businessman Michael Byng has also previously declared he represented Chinese businessman interested in taking over the club.
Mr Kelman’s suggestion is different in that he does not want control of the club, but wants fans to raise the funds to pay the club’s rent and ensure a return to the Ricoh - with any additional revenue invested into the club.
“Since I have been on the board we have had a number of people saying they are interested in acquiring the club through whatever structure it might be and they’ve often turned out to be completely flaky,” said Mr Labovitch.
“One of the suspicious things has always been when they don’t do the normal thing which is to contact the person they want to deal with but to go straight to the newspaper. Serious people don’t do that.
“I don’t want to make any comment about Kelman because I don’t know him. All I’m saying is if he has a serious proposal for the club’s board or for the club’s owner, he ought to be making that directly.
“It’s a very serious situation and I think you ought to go about this in a very serious and professional way.
“In an industry like this, all manner of people come out of the woodwork and I think you separate them between the people that approach the club in a professional way and if there is something to discuss it might result in something that’s worth announcing to the media.
“I think it’s unfair on fans to get their hopes up when there might not be anything there.”
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-city-director-tells-man-7023206
