Proposals for greater transparency in football governance (1 Viewer)

Coventry City FC is a club with a proud history. Established in 1883, they were FA Cup winners in 1987 and only relegated from the top division within the professional game for the first time in 34 years in 2001. But by the summer of 2013 this previously famous community club saw the culmination of a number of years of uncertainty and decline. At the start of the 2013-14 season, it had 10 points deducted from its league total as a result of entering administration, having just agreed to play its home games over 30 miles away in Northampton.

It has been embroiled in a drawn out takeover attempt, shrouded in uncertainty and lack of clarity. Essentially, it appears that a company called Otium attempted to buy the club when it became insolvent from the existing owner company, Sisu which, it transpires, actually owns Otium in the first place.

The central issue has been the ambiguous nature of the ownership of the club. According to one investigative writer, there are two versions of the club which are registered: Coventry City Football Club Ltd (CCFC Ltd) and Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd (CCFCH Ltd). There is significant confusion over which company actually owns Coventry City FC and it appears that some parts are owned by each.

Information obtained by this investigator indicates that CCFC Ltd is a subsidiary of CCFCH Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Otium Entertainment Group Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Blue Sky Sports and Leisure Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the Cayman Islands registered company Sconset Capital LP, which appears to be fully owned by the London based Sisu Capital Management Ltd which is a subsidiary of the Virgin Islands based Wynacare Ltd.

To make matters worse, at the time of writing this report, it appears that neither CCFC Ltd, CCFCH Ltd, Blue Sky Sports or Leisure Ltd have filed statutory accounts for the requisite period, casting further darkness on the internal workings of the club.

Finally, one of the key parts of the administration process was finding out who owned the ‘golden share’, entitling the club to membership of the Football League and Football Association. As this is a fairly significant document, one would have thought someone would know who owned it, but again this was shrouded in mystery until documents from 2008 obtained by the website ‘200%’66 showed it belonged to CCFC Ltd.

The Coventry City case study remains confused and complex but it is illuminating with regard to the parlous state of football governance as it relates to the transparency of ownership:
: There remains a desperate need for clarity if owners are to be properly held to account for their actions in governing and disposing of the community assets in their charge;
: Without effective prescribed routes for communication of the precise standing and ownership status of a club, legitimate stakeholders will remain disenfranchised from knowledge and decisions that directly affect them.

Clarity

The Coventry case demonstrates that the current system of owner disclosure by the Football League, and ultimately the FA, is inadequate. Although technically much of the information is available, it is often only possible to obtain it through arduous and time-consuming research by investigative journalists or concerned members of the public.

By way of response, Football League Chairman Greg Clarke, in evidence to the DCMS Select Committee’s follow up report (January 2013), commented that while he agreed in principle that supporters should know who owned their club, many owners wanted to protect themselves from a minority of fans who may put pressure on them to spend more money on the club.

This is entirely unsatisfactory and in 2013 the DCMS Select Committee endorsed our view:
‘We remain unconvinced that the ultimate owners of football clubs—which are not ordinary businesses and operate for the enjoyment and benefit of their local communities and fans—require their anonymity to be preserved either from or by the football authorities.’
DCMS Select Committee
Fourth Report Football Governance Follow-Up, 2013

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James Smith said:

Will they be hearing from lawyers anytime soon?

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mds said:

We will be the club version of Marc Bosman, new laws rules n regulations for all club owners to adhere to.

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