Brian Richardson. (1 Viewer)

Asked whether things could have been done differently, Mr Richardson said: “If I had done it differently I would have insisted we did not get involved directly with the council - apart from planning - and I would have insisted we stuck together as a board and did a deal with Tesco.”

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Mr Richardson mentioned he still had information which showed what the income would have been from Tesco.

Pushed again aas to whether he took any responsibility he said: “Why don’t you listen for one minute.

“The fact of the matter is they did not stick to terms agreed with Teso.

“It was never intended to be a 50/50 deal with the council.

“It was always intended it would be 100 per cent owned by Coventry City Football Club.

“Of course I take responsibility - I am the chairman of the company - but the problem with the whole process was it didn’t come to fruition because there were areas which were not handled properly.”

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Bryan Richardson just proving the council’s shithousery way before Wasps and SISU. As I’ve said previously. Richardson and the council have done more for our downfall years ago

I don't understand what the purpose of him going on the radio was? Surely he's not naive enough to think that he wouldn't have been barraged with such questions? Very odd.

Who was the council leader at that time?

I found it a little odd that he still has the documents at home.

No need to drag up these dinosaurs why are they not getting the current people on

riyadhskyblue said:

I met Richardson on several social occasions in the nineties and I held him in the highest regard as a chairman and custodian of the club. He was ambitious, open, deep thinking and wanted only the best for club and the new stadium was his baby until his removal.
Now it is up to others to decide their truth about him but I believe the ombudsman cleared him of any wrong doing at the time and does anybody really believe that he got millions out of the process and hasn't been spoken to by the authorities or sued, or barred as a company director?
Then you have the Chinese whispers, why hasn't he faced them head on? I know he had a spell as a financial advisor at Derby which will make some laugh or choke!
Where he lost me was the pay rises and bonus he gave himself. These are not flights of fantasy or urban gossip but audited club accounts.
"Richardson's decision to vote himself a 170% pay rise and hoist his wage to around £600,000 a year riled supporters and he was removed in a January boardroom coup with the club £60m in debt."

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I must admit at the time i definitely thought we had one of the best chairmen in the land along with Gibson of Middlesbrough. That was when we were spending Millions on the likes of Leeds and Scotland captain on fees and wages that the likes of West Ham and even Villa couldnt dream of.

Londonccfcfan said:

I must admit at the time i definitely thought we had one of the best chairmen in the land along with Gibson of Middlesbrough. That was when we were spending Millions on the likes of Leeds and Scotland captain on fees and wages that the likes of West Ham and even Villa couldnt dream of.

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But we didn’t have the money to do that and ended up with our ground sold, not one even started to be built, no means to pay for one, hence the eventual involvement of our council to help and over £60 million of debt. And eventually our present owners.
Yes the guy did well

He's made these claims about the Tesco deal before yet never produced anything to support it.
Knew him and his family all around this time.
Ran the club as an ego trip and to promote his other interests. Always the dreamer - see the original stadium designs!!!
Easier to spend other people's money - not sure he ever had any investment in the club himself.

Richardson - but he would say that wouldn't he. So lets get a few provable facts- all taken from audited accounts he signed

Richardson appointed 09/11/1991
Resigned 30/01/2002

CCFC set things in motion on the stadium in late 90's and registered Arena 2001 Ltd for the purpose in 1999. CCC didnt get into a joint venture with CCFC until after 31 May 2002. The companies CCC used for their involvement were not even registered until 2002. CCFC had sold the assets under construction (the stadium) during the year to 31/05/2001 (i think it was to a dutch company HDK ? ) with an option to buy back. It still showed in the 2001 accounts as £17m asset but also offset by a £13m loan (not sure accounting rules would let you do that now but a lot of things have changed since 2001 so i am not suggesting any funny business). The option depended on the repayment of the loan in 2002, which of course the club could not afford to do. Which is when CCC stepped in with the joint venture.

The club did not have the money to proceed on its own. The option to purchase had lapsed because they could not pay for what they had spent already. Had the loan not been settled then the club was in serious trouble, having agreed to sell Highfield Rd

It was agreed that CCFC would transfer the assets under construction and the loan to the joint venture. Net amount valued at £4.8m. CCC equity investment was £10m. At this point CCFC had a 50:50 interest in the joint venture

The land purchase cost was £24m which i believe was financed by the back to back deal with Tesco (who paid £42m cash and £17m contribution in kind) That would have left 18m cash to finance the stadium build. Construction costs were over £76m. The Tesco deal was not enough to pay for it all.

When Richardson came to the club the 1992 accounts showed
Fixed assets 5.3m
Current assets 0.2m
Liabilities (3.9m)
Net Assets 1.6m

The year he left 2002
Fixed assets 13.5m
Current assets 9.8m
Liabilities (37.5m)
Net liabilities (14.2m)

There is no mystery as to how creditors dropped in 2002. It was because responsibility for £13m of loans was transferred to the joint venture with the council

As far as i can tell Richardson was paid the following (caveat to that is the audited accounts are not always clear & transparent so there may be some differences)
1997 £87k
1998 £175k
1999 £194k
2000 £217k
2001 £689k
2002 £260K

Player sales. I understand there are allegations that deals were done away from the club. I can not comment on that. I can tell you the figures i can trace in the audited accounts during the Richardson tenure

From 1992 to 1998 the practice of the club was to show the net amount of player activity (ie sales less purchases) Net purchases in a year show in brackets
1992 (30k)
1993 20k
1994 (800k)
1995 (1.1m)
1996 (7.8m)
1997 (8.8m)
1998 (3.0m)

From 1999 onwards the cash flow statements each year show sales & purchases separately

1999 sales 14.4m purchases 12.7m
2000 sales 10.8m purchases 13.2m
2001 sales 11.3m purchases 11.0m
2002 sales 26.6m purchases 13.7m

as far as i can see the profits were applied to running the club and paying off debt. In 2002 losses were £2m even after profits on player sales profits of £13m in 2003 the year after he left losses were over £5m

Richardson left in January 2002, it is extremely hard to believe he did not know all of the above

The club lost total control when they sold their 50% stake in the joint venture to the Charity 19th December 2003.

However if you work through the figures the cost of the involvement in the stadium project then after you take the costs (including interest) less the creditors moved to the JV and the sale to the charity = 308K net total investment
(The club accrued 1.7m interest on the build costs debt they could not pay)

SimonGilbert said:

Here’s the full interview
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire - The Breakfast Show with Trish Adudu, 27/02/2019, Sky Blues: Bryan Richardson interview

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Nick, you need to update Simon's account. He makes tea at the BBC now

JamesCCFC said:

I don't understand what the purpose of him going on the radio was? Surely he's not naive enough to think that he wouldn't have been barraged with such questions? Very odd.

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Doubt he contacted CWR and demanded to go on. More likely that, as this is a big story, they're contacting people who have been involved asking them to come on.

Nick said:

Who was the council leader at that time?

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It went John Fletcher (more recently chairman of the Sky Blue Trust), Nick Nolan, John Mutton, Ann Lucas, George Duggins.

chiefdave said:

Doubt he contacted CWR and demanded to go on. More likely that, as this is a big story, they're contacting people who have been involved asking them to come on.

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It still begs the question of why agree to come on? He's been in hiding for years then suddenly decides to put his head above the parapet thinking that all has been forgotten because there's a new baddie in town?

JamesCCFC said:

It still begs the question of why agree to come on? He's been in hiding for years then suddenly decides to put his head above the parapet thinking that all has been forgotten because there's a new baddie in town?

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Why do you say he has been in hiding? He just may not have been asked since the last time when we were in Northampton?
As inconceivable as it seems to you, maybe he has nothing to hide and your assumptions are just that, assumptions.

TA Do you regret coming up with the vision for the new stadium?


BR -"I regret how it was handled because it was exactly the right thing to do at the right time. The whole key to the thing was the sale of part of the land for £66.5 million of income from Tesco, that was more than enough to do the whole development, I’d love to know to this day what happened to all that money as I was gone by then"


A lot of people will say you are partly responsible for the state and the situation the club is in, you left the club with over £60 million pounds of debt


"Can I just stop you there, the maximum amount our overdraft ever was at the bank was £8.2 million. Can you imagine for one minute, a club like Coventry City who are not a big club, would be able to run up debts that high? No bank in the world would allow them to run up debts of £60 million pounds, that was just a number put out by people who just wanted to discredit me and maybe the project itself"


Could you have done things better Bryan as you yourself know, in the year 2000 you paid yourself £588,000 which was more than the highest paid director at Manchester United


"No that was not about that at all, the basis of that was, and I never payed myself a penny. We had a compensation committee that was Derrek Higgs, Geoffrey Robinson and Brenda Price, I did not ever allocate one penny of the clubs money to myself, it was not my role. We had people who decided how much I earned and I never decided how much I earnt ever."


A lot of Coventry City fans say that you played a big part on Coventry City’s decline, what would you say to them?


"I don’t think that’s fair or true, everybody on the board of CCFC at that time was 100% committed to building the new stadium, there was not one doubter on our board."


So Bryan, what happened to the money then for selling Highfield Road?


"Well I’d love somebody to tell me. I’ve got correspondence with me right now that shows what the income would have been from Tesco, for the land, there was also in the contract the other land that was developed in the shops around the main Tesco of which there is 80,000 square feet. The fact of the matter is they did not stick to the terms agreed……."


Bryan, do you not take ANY responsibility for the situation the club is in right now? You say you don’t know where the money has gone and its got nothing to do with you, you’ve not paid yourself, do you not take any responsibility?


"Why don’t you listen for one minute, the fact of the matter is they did not stick to the terms that we were agreed with Tesco, it was never intended to be a 50/50 deal with the Council, it was always intended it was going to be 100% owned by Coventry City Football Club and for the benefit of Coventry City Football Club. Of course I take responsibility, I am the chairman of the company but the point of the whole process was it didn’t come to fruition because there were areas there that were not handled properly."


Looking back what would you have done differently?


"I would have insisted that we did not get involved directly with the Council except as planning and I would have also insisted we would be stuck together as a board and we would have done that deal with Tesco"


What do you make of the clubs predicament now?


"I don’t know enough about it to be honest, I’m very very saddened by the condition but it will take a lot of hard work."

disgusting council

riyadhskyblue said:

Why do you say he has been in hiding? He just may not have been asked since the last time when we were in Northampton?
As inconceivable as it seems to you, maybe he has nothing to hide and your assumptions are just that, assumptions.

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Some pretty appalling rumours came out of Richardson's tenure regarding personal expenditures being constantly put through the club that I have heard many a time from those who have worked alongside or under him. Yes rumours are sometimes just rumours but I'm an advocate of 'there's no smoke without fire'.

I would have every reason to hide if I were him.

As usual the Bryan Richardson version of reality is unrecognisable when compared to actual events and forensic analysis.

Edit: FFS trying to conflate a bank overdraft with debt. Now you know where Fisher learned some of his tricks.

Can we all agree on one thing here..

No matter who you hate more - The Council, SISU, Wasps

This man is universally reviled... he should just stay quiet and disappear off to his no doubt rich retirement

I live for the day that that all the shady dealings of the last 25 years are exposed.

Nick said:

So the money from the sale to tesco went on other stuff with the council?

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There is an online council report showing where the money came from and went to.

OSB's information from accounts above shines more light on the perilous financial straits the club was in.

BR of course omits the fact the club sold the land to the Dutch builders (in desperation) who later made their money on selling it on to the council at a premium.

Another smoking gun illusion.

I don't hate him, he was just on that gravy train at the time like all the others, players, agents, managers, officials.......all with their snouts in the trough. The biggest idiots really were the banks who let it all happen.

pointless and irrelevant interview really

oldskyblue58 said:

pointless and irrelevant interview really

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There's been a few of those as of late.

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:

Bryan Richardson just proving the council’s shithousery way before Wasps and SISU. As I’ve said previously. Richardson and the council have done more for our downfall years ago

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Richardson was gone before then he would have pulled the plug and stayed at Highfield Road

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:

Can we all agree on one thing here..

No matter who you hate more - The Council, SISU, Wasps

This man is universally reviled... he should just stay quiet and disappear off to his no doubt rich retirement

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No I do not agree actually

Grendel said:

No I do not agree actually

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For me his whole plan seemed dependant on England getting the World Cup.

He is very much behind our downfall. The council facilitated it

Bumberclart said:

I live for the day that that all the shady dealings of the last 25 years are exposed.

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I was told ages ago by a pal right at the head of things when the Northampton thing was bubbling. between us the suffering fans, sisu, council etc that when/if the whole truth comes out it will shock us all.

But I think regarding Richardson he’s from the now distant past forget what he did, who he was and look forward, the past has gone cannot be altered but our future at the minute looks grim.

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:

For me his whole plan seemed dependant on England getting the World Cup.

He is very much behind our downfall. The council facilitated it

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He never sold the rights to move from highfield road so how you reach that conclusion is baffling

Grendel said:

He never sold the rights to move from highfield road so how you reach that conclusion is baffling

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It was his grand plan to make us bigger than we were that have led to today.

He didn’t sell Highfield Road but the facts are - he put plans in place we couldn’t afford, and was facilitated by a council also on the gravy train.

SISU are a symptom of his dealings

HuckerbyDublinWhelan said:

It was his grand plan to make us bigger than we were that have led to today.

He didn’t sell Highfield Road but the facts are - he put plans in place we couldn’t afford, and was facilitated by a council also on the gravy train.

SISU are a symptom of his dealings

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Rubbish

The council had a perfect puppet in mginnitty and pushed him forward. Richardson wasn’t weak and was ruthless. He would never have signed the deal we ended up with - he’d have bust the club got highfield road back and started again

If the sale of land to Tesco was enough to finance the rest of the project why the hell did we even need to get the council involved?

Liquid Gold said:

If the sale of land to Tesco was enough to finance the rest of the project why the hell did we even need to get the council involved?

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Greed and signing players we couldn't really afford to try and break the glass ceiling. Ultimately unsustainable but I don't think they factored relegation or that the gravy train would ever stop.

rob9872 said:

Greed and signing players we couldn't really afford to try and break the glass ceiling. Ultimately unsustainable but I don't think they factored relegation or that the gravy train would ever stop.

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Didn't the sale to Tesco come after relegation?

Liquid Gold said:

If the sale of land to Tesco was enough to finance the rest of the project why the hell did we even need to get the council involved?

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Read OSB's post. Richardson is implying CCFC had the asset to sell, they lost it due to debt before that deal was done.