‘Drop legal action or sell club’, council tells Coventry City’s owners
The leader of Coventry City Council has told Coventry City’s owners it must drop its legal action against the authority or sell the club.
An open letter from the leader of Coventry City Council George Duggins urged Sisu to end the “divisive” dispute over the sale of Ricoh Arena.
He said: “It is SISU’s right to pursue legal action but if they wish to continue to do so, we would urge them to divest themselves of the football club so it can have a secure future in this city.”
Sisu has promised it will drop legal action against the council if it has support to build a home in the city.
The letter said: “It is evident that the continuation of litigation is alienating them from the partners in the city who they should be working with to secure a successful and sustainable future for Coventry City Football Club.
“As well as being divisive, the time and cost to taxpayers in this city in defending litigation that has consistently been found in our favour over a number of years, is both disruptive and distracting.
“The costs, opportunity cost and corrosive impact on partnership working is the reason why we are so adamant this process needs to end, a view we know is shared by Wasps. It is in SISU’s hands alone to make this happen.”
Earlier this month, SISU indicated that in order to stop the litigation, they wanted “a stadium development supported by the council in Coventry with enabling development on reasonable terms.”
The letter from Duggins responded: “We encourage SISU to be more specific with us about planning and enablement of the development of a new stadium. We also want to stress that any application for a stadium development will be dealt with completely impartially and in accordance with our statutory duties.
“Any planning application for a new stadium is about far more than just the structure, as it would need to address a multitude of issues from ensuring sufficient transport infrastructure through to addressing potential hurdles with an identified site.”
He added that Coventry City Council “wants to see the football club remain within the city”.
“For the next period, this can only realistically be at the Ricoh Arena. So in order to give the English Football League the assurance it understandably demands for next season and for fans to be able to carry on supporting the Sky Blues, hopefully as a Championship team, then SISU has no choice but to cease for all time the legal action, without any pre-conditions.”
The legal case involving City’s owners Sisu is based on their claim that Coventry City Council undervalued the Ricoh Arena by £27m when the ground was sold to Wasps.
