Judge upholds Coventry City Council’s £14m Ricoh Arena bailout

AN application for a judicial review by Coventry City’s owners against Coventry City Council has been dismissed by a High Court judge.

The application by Sisu had accused the council of acting unlawfully in January when it bought out part-council owned Ricoh firm Arena Coventry Limited (ACL)’s mortgage debt from Yorkshire Bank for £14m.

The judge ruled the council acted properly following the football club’s decision to withhold £100,000-a-month rental payments to ACL.

An ACL spokeman said: “We note the announcement today that the High Court has dismissed the application by SISU to seek a judicial review of Coventry City Council’s decision to take over Yorkshire Bank’s loan to ACL.

“We are pleased to see that what we believe to be the correct judgement has been made in this unfortunate situation.”

A brief statement on Coventry City’s website said: “Coventry City Football Club has noted the ruling by Mr Justice Males on the Judicial Review and will consider the decision before taking its next steps.”

Coventry City have just been docked ten points by the Football League after a creditors’ meeting last week failed to agree terms that would allow the club to come out of administration and sent it spiralling towards liquidation.

The club is understood to be searching for a site for a new ground in its home town but in the meantime a groundshare with Northampton Town has been agreed and Coventry City’s first ‘home’ game at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium is due to take place this weekend.

Coventry have lost their first two games of the season.

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