If this doesn't damage your faith in the ability of Ann Lucas and Coventry City Council to run the city and do business in an open and honest way, then you are far more trusting than me.
When the council stepped in to bail-out ACL to the tune of £14.4 million, the Council were absolutely clear that ACL was profitable, and that there was no risk to taxpayers' money. In fact the claim was that overall city taxpayers would benefit from the deal. I remember this quite clearly, because I supported the bail-out loud and long on here. I based that support on what was quite clearly a lie.
Similarly, when the club came back, and the council said that time was needed to rebuild trust before talking about the sale of the stadium, that too was a lie.
Anyone who thinks the council has played this well, is presumably basing that opinion at least in part on what the council have said about the deal not harming CCFC or CRFC, and being beneficial to the city overall. As we've seen though taking anything that the council say on trust, is a mug's game.
There was a time that I would have argued that the steps that the council took with regard to ACL (the administration of CCFC Ltd, the bail-out etc.) were primarily made with good intent towards the club (if not the owners). What we've seen now though, is that when it became politically expedient the council were more than content to lie through their teeth and ultimately sell the club down the river to get out the mess they'd made for themselves.
It's unsupportable this - if CCC were going to sell ACL on the cheap, and with a 250-year lease, then why not at least try to make that deal with the club first rather than the rugby franchise. (For all of Fisher's new-stadium bluster, it's worth noting that they did at least try to buy 50% on these terms when Higgs was legally obliged to allow the club to make an offer.)
And regardless of your opinion on all of this, I'll make this point again - the council have quite clearly lied significantly on at least on two occasions, and probably more besides that. I used to have some modicum of faith in them, but how are we supposed to trust people like this regarding anything they say now?