Email From Football League (6 Viewers)

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lamtara2006

Member
I received this by email yesterday:


Thank you for your email, we note your comments.

As you may have read a Football League spokesman recently said, “The Football League will continue with its efforts to resolve what is a complicated and hostile commercial dispute and we remain in dialogue with all the relevant parties.

“Our overriding aim is the return of Coventry City to the Coventry area within the timescale set out in the Club’s membership agreement.”

Aside from that, we can only provide the following information regarding the situation, which we have publicly stated previously.

The Board of The Football League has received updates and the situation continues to be closely monitored, with discussion ongoing regarding progress in returning the Club to the Coventry area. You will understand that it is not always possible to make every detail of these meetings public, but as with all cases of clubs looking to move grounds, The League will continue to emphasise to the Club that supporters should be kept up to date as often as is practically possible.

Whilst The League has publically urged Otium and ACL to resolve the dispute, The League has no jurisdiction to force any Club (or landlord for that matter) to come to an arrangement over land or rental agreement. With no agreement in place to play at the Ricoh Arena, reluctantly, the Board of Directors approved the application to relocate on a temporary basis only.

The Board has given Coventry City permission to play its matches at Northampton Town for the next three seasons, with no agreement in place regarding the Ricoh Arena. Obviously if an arrangement is reached by the club to return to Coventry at an earlier point then this is desirable for all. The League has previously stated that ideally an agreement can be reached between parties to enable this to happen. This term can be extended for two further periods of 12 months, provided the club can demonstrate sufficient progress towards the building of a new stadium in the Coventry area. Should the club not comply with this timeframe, the matter will be considered by The Football League Board at the relevant time with reference to both the permission to relocate and the membership agreement entered into in August 2013. Expulsion from the League would be a realistic outcome at that stage.

The stadium dispute between Arena Coventry Limited and Coventry City is ultimately one which must be resolved by the two parties themselves, if they are prepared to do so. However, The League is continuing with our efforts to get the Club playing back in the Coventry area as soon as possible.

The League is unable to provide further comment at this time.

Thank you for contacting The Football League.

Regards,

Andrew Pomfret
Customer Services Officer
The Football League Limited
www.football-league.co.uk
 
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lamtara2006

Member
To which I replied:

Andrew

Thank you for your response in your email, the contents of which are noted.

Please be advised that : “… the return of Coventry City to the Coventry area …” will be unacceptable to the vast majority of supporters of our club. Only a return to the City of Coventry will satisfy me and fellow fans. A return to the Ricoh by the start of 2014/15 season is the only outcome that will meet with general approval.

In any case, the minority of supporters who would consider attending a venue outside the city limits have seen no tangible progress over the past 15 months, since Coventry City left the Ricoh Arena, towards the provision of a new stadium in any location. It is a widely held view that the artists impressions circulated, appointment of professional advisors and establishment of a Stadium Forum (consultation group) is nothing more than ‘smoke & mirrors’, the sole purpose of which is to create an impression with the Football League that Otium is progressing this matter. I doubt very much that the project would stand-up to due diligence, even at the most basic level. No land purchase has been made, no site even publicly identified, let alone planning applications submitted. Indicative timescales announced by Otium Directors, Tim Fisher and Mark Labovitch, have long since passed and now there is a refusal to give any sort of timing plan. Officers of the Football League may be easily persuaded, the supporters of Coventry City are generally not so easily fooled.

You state in your reply that: ‘The League has no jurisdiction to force any Club (or landlord for that matter) to come to an arrangement over land or rental agreement.’ While I have no argument with that statement, surely you do have a regulatory duty to ensure that your members behave in a reasonable and responsible manner when carrying out their business affairs? The judgment handed down this week by Mr Justice Hickinbottom makes it abundantly clear that the Directors of the Club and the owners that instruct those Directors, Sisu Capital, have behaved in a demonstrably unethical manner and by their conduct they bring Coventry City Football Club and the wider interests of the National Game into disrepute.

A feature of the membership agreement that allowed Otium to take possession of the Golden Share was the payment of £590,000 to Arena Coventry Limited by 31[SUP]st[/SUP] May 2014. 5 weeks have elapsed since that deadline passed and that sum remains unpaid yet the Football League appears not to have taken any steps toward enforcement. This is yet another event in the saga which makes the Football League look like a ‘toothless tiger’. Sisu / Otium / the Club Directors can seemingly do what they wish with impunity as far as the Football League is concerned.

Your motto of ‘Real Football, Real Fans’ rings very hollow when the Football League’s actions – more particularly your inactions – have directly contributed to the suffering of Coventry City Supporters. I urge you to adopt a more pro-active strategy to bring about the immediate return of Coventry City to Coventry (not the Coventry area). Merely maintaining dialogue, monitoring the situation and other passive methods are simply not good enough, please take some positive action before it is too late.

Kind regards
 
C

Chipfat

Well-Known Member
Great response, everyone flood the FL with this mail....How can the FL decide who is fit and proper to run a club when they are not fit a proper to run the game..
 
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skyblueinBaku

skyblueinBaku

Well-Known Member
An excellent email from you to the FL, lamtara. I've been toying with the idea of writing to them along similar lines to yours, but in terms that, while not impolite, were more robust. Perhaps I should...:thinking about:
 
joemercersaces

joemercersaces

Well-Known Member
Had the same stock response from them this week after I emailed urging them in the light of the judgement to reflect that they were being taken for fools by SISU and that the overwhelming majority of fans wanted nothing to do with them. Knew this would be the case but surely there comes a point at which, if they receive enough grief from enough fans either they have to re-consider or some investigative journalist asks them how much contact they have had and ignored from Coventry supporters. All about keeping up the pressure.
 
S

Spionkop

New Member
Joe, absolutely. If enough of us keep pestering them. The David Conn article will have pushed it to the forefront. No word from Sisu about him this time.
Right, all about keeping up the pressure.
I think we need to contact a lot more people in the football media. Jeff Stelling, Chris Kamara, Henry Winter, Gary Lineker, people with a voice. Neil Warnock has a regular column, Ian Holloway another, Stan Collymore and others.
 
TrueSkyBlueLiam

TrueSkyBlueLiam

Member
Whats the email address pal? I'd quite like to add a couple of things. If we are to make our voices heard, we all need to contact the Football League in a respectful, imformative manner, like you have, instead of angry abuse which wont be listened to. If we are to make our voices heard, we need to start to make contact with the relevant organisations and tell the world that we wont give up
 
S

Sky Blue Dal

Well-Known Member
Also need to include Adrian Durham as he has on many occasions shown to sympathise with the fans and not forgetting the mighty Micky Quinn.
We need to highlight the result of the JR to them to give them a heads up on this latest predicament of the FL again ignoring the fans interest.
 
Paxman II

Paxman II

Well-Known Member
It's a very passionate email and while emphasising the point well, is also prone to your personal view of Otium's business affairs and how to operate them. True it may not suit any of us but the FL is correct in it's reply and I can't see very much that can be instigated by them over and above what they have mentioned.

A stadium in the Coventry area is not any different from many similar clubs not 'actually' being within the city boundary but clearly is within the catchment area. (Should Coventry transport buses fail to go beyond the City limits?) I would not be too worried about this at this stage and can't be used as an argument to the FL, certainly not until we were told very differently of a stadium location.

The £590k payment is probably subject to many mitigating circumstances for it's delay and therefore not yet a contention because you say it is, frustrating as it is.

I support your efforts whole heartedly but the passion can not over rule the facts and the process. At the very least you have reminded them of the severity of the situation and that can't be a bad thing.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
Paxman II said:
A stadium in the Coventry area is not any different from many similar clubs not 'actually' being within the city boundary but clearly is within the catchment area. (Should Coventry transport buses fail to go beyond the City limits?) I would not be too worried about this at this stage and can't be used as an argument to the FL, certainly not until we were told very differently of a stadium location.
Click to expand...

If you're given three years to build a stadium, the traditional approach is to let people know where it is supposed to go before a third of that time has passed...
 
TheRoyalScam

TheRoyalScam

Well-Known Member
The FL reply is shoddy because it says 'The Board has given Coventry City permission to play its matches at Northampton Town for the next three seasons' - surely that should read 'the next two seasons', because one of the initial three seasons has already gone??!! It reeks of 'cutting and pasting' original FL 'replies' from a year ago, and shows their utter contempt towards supporters.

Excellent reply from lamtara 2006 - will the FL deign to answer though? I'm not holding my breath;)

By the way, does anyone have any news on Hickinbottom J's costs decision for the JR? (I do know that CCCouncil are, quite correctly, looking for SISU/Arvo to pay all of CCC's costs.)
 
Delboycov

Delboycov

Active Member
Paxman II said:
It's a very passionate email and while emphasising the point well, is also prone to your personal view of Otium's business affairs and how to operate them. True it may not suit any of us but the FL is correct in it's reply and I can't see very much that can be instigated by them over and above what they have mentioned.

A stadium in the Coventry area is not any different from many similar clubs not 'actually' being within the city boundary but clearly is within the catchment area. (Should Coventry transport buses fail to go beyond the City limits?) I would not be too worried about this at this stage and can't be used as an argument to the FL, certainly not until we were told very differently of a stadium location.

The £590k payment is probably subject to many mitigating circumstances for it's delay and therefore not yet a contention because you say it is, frustrating as it is.

I support your efforts whole heartedly but the passion can not over rule the facts and the process. At the very least you have reminded them of the severity of the situation and that can't be a bad thing.
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It's a passionate email because he wants to see his team play IN his home city...I'm sure the majority of fans don't want us playing miles away from our city which is the current nightmare situation and will be if Arena Tinpot ever becomes a reality. You've made it quite clear in previous posts you quite fancy the idea of a new stadium in the 'Coventry area'....think you might be quite lonely there if the unthinkable happens and it ever becomes reality.
 
S

Spionkop

New Member
Paxman, as Lamtara points out - 'the Coventry area' is not an option for 99% of City fans. It's not on. That scenario would simply kill the club stone dead.
The Ricoh is at the outer limits of what City fans will accept.
The Football League is not correct. Their inaction is shameful. Meek acceptance of that statement from them is not good enough. Sorry, you are well out of kilter with the mood.
Lamtara's comments are pretty well an accurate reflection of 99% of City fans and their views I'd say.
The £590,000 not paid by Sisu - is simply an unpaid bill. Nothing less. An unpaid bill that could see us docked further points at some stage. They'll blame the council I dare say.
I'm glad to see City fans pushing for answers.
Yep, a strongly worded email - a bloody good one too. The more the better.
 
Covstu

Covstu

Well-Known Member
joking aside maybe it does call for a Shawshank Redemption -esque approach with the FL? Clearly we have some creative and educated people on this site (some not so) but if a letter can be agreed then maybe a 1000 letters a month may piss them off enough to do something (or have to reply back to us all). I would be happy to post a letter under my name every week but just think it could have greater impact with a huge number doing the same??
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
Covstu said:
joking aside maybe it does call for a Shawshank Redemption -esque approach with the FL? Clearly we have some creative and educated people on this site (some not so) but if a letter can be agreed then maybe a 1000 letters a month may piss them off enough to do something (or have to reply back to us all). I would be happy to post a letter under my name every week but just think it could have greater impact with a huge number doing the same??
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Frankly, I think that'd be the worst to do.

Spam means people stop listening.

If an e-mail's individual, then it may just get some attention paid answering it (or not! But... more likely someone reads it)
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
Covstu said:
you mean like the 'stock' answer that he received. Yep that will work.
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And you're never going to get anything other than the stock answer.

But an individual mail at least means someone casts their eye over it before c&p'ing. 500 of the same content results in one bored temp bulk emailing one afternoon, with absolute indifference as to what's in the mail.
 
Delboycov

Delboycov

Active Member
Deleted member 5849 said:
Frankly, I think that'd be the worst to do.

Spam means people stop listening.

If an e-mail's individual, then it may just get some attention paid answering it (or not! But... more likely someone reads it)
Click to expand...

Agree with you there again NW and got to say the OP's email back is excellent because he speaks from the heart of probably every CCFC fan...maybe they're completely out of touch or simply don't care but surely a message like that must make them at least think?!
 
Covstu

Covstu

Well-Known Member
nah personally 1000 pissed off letters would envoke a response in my opinion but hey lets be polite.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
If you really wanted to cause them to use up time, you'd not cram everything into one mail either.

You'd ask one question at a time, follow up until they at least gave an answer to that question (even if not the answer you wanted) and, once they've done that... you move onto the next question for the next mail.
 
Covstu

Covstu

Well-Known Member
agree it could be a good approach, they have generalised a lot of the original complaint in a few sentences. does anyone have the email address by the way??
 
Voice_of_Reason

Voice_of_Reason

Well-Known Member
I emailed a reply too, pointing out that their "standard reply" was simply not good enough. I mentioned that it would appear from the Hight Court ruling that not only were SISU "unfit owners" and SISU's miss-management was all with the approval of the Football League, the Football League approved a move to Northampton when there was no justifiable reason for doing so and that the Football League appears to continue approving SISU's actions and management. (All under the itile Without Prejudice). I referred to the David Conn article and the 200% article. I agree we all should ask Bob Ainsworth etc to push for avtion to be taken against the Football League for alledged breach of it's own rules !
 
Paxman II

Paxman II

Well-Known Member
For the record I have no problem if the club played in or around the edges of the City limits. What's your problem with that? If they were in Bayton Rd, Exhall for example are you saying you would expect an empty stadium? The idea that some on here think they speak for the vast majority of supporters by suggesting otherwise is arrogant. Is the training ground in Ryton also a bad thing or is that close enough?

You will lose your argument if you insist on it being well within the city limits and nothing else is acceptable. Preferable, yes of course but not a deal breaker.
 
bigfatronssba

bigfatronssba

Well-Known Member
Paxman II said:
For the record I have no problem if the club played in or around the edges of the City limits. What's your problem with that? If they were in Bayton Rd, Exhall for example are you saying you would expect an empty stadium? The idea that some on here think they speak for the vast majority of supporters by suggesting otherwise is arrogant. Is the training ground in Ryton also a bad thing or is that close enough?

You will lose your argument if you insist on it being well within the city limits and nothing else is acceptable. Preferable, yes of course but not a deal breaker.
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It won't be on the city boundary though will it? The city is surrounded by greenbelt land, and there is more chance of a new stadium going on top of the cathedral than on greenbelt land.

Once past the greenbelt you are almost certainly into the territory of other towns, places that ccfc have no right to play
 
torchomatic

torchomatic

Well-Known Member
bigfatronssba said:
It won't be on the city boundary though will it? The city is surrounded by greenbelt land, and there is more chance of a new stadium going on top of the cathedral than on greenbelt land.

Once past the greenbelt you are almost certainly into the territory of other towns, places that ccfc have no right to play
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Well greenbelt is built on all the time. It seems rules will be broken at a whim of the planning authority.
 
D

Deleted member 5849

Guest
torchomatic said:
Well greenbelt is built on all the time. It seems rules will be broken at a whim of the planning authority.
Click to expand...

tbf, a few houses and a hulking great football stadium are rather different beasts!
 
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