Coventry City FC (The Bantams, Sky Blues)

Sky Blue Trust Press Release 02/08/2013 The Sky Blue Trust are appalled at the latest turn of events. Liquidation poses the most serious threat to the future of our Club. Where today's liquidation leaves our club, we don't yet know. The Football League have not issued a verdict yet, but it has consistently failed to make decisions that have taken into account the views of the supporters and the community that sustain our Club. It has failed to stand up to the bullying and alleged legal threats coming from SISU, and it has still failed to investigate the role of Joy Seppala as a shadow director. Today's publication of documents purporting to show that administrator Paul Appleton and SISU itself must have known all along where the Golden Share of the Football League lay all along is another area of deep concern for us which we call on the League to investigate. We call upon all those involved to pause for thought before taking any further action. Please don't make a bad situation any worse. We urge the League not to take precipitate action to award the share to Otium. They must give full consideration to the detailed representations the Trust has made to them, in a detailed, evidenced dossier, before they take any decisions. We would implore you all to finally look seriously at your responsibilities and act accordingly - what is needed now is the right action not a knee jerk reaction. The future long term viability of Coventry City must be the over riding criteria. Your actions will now be judged by thousands of Sky Blue fans and the world of football in general at a most critical time. Do not compound your mistakes. Do the right thing.

So, the Football League have reached their verdict:- "Golden Share" awarded to Otium Entertainment Ltd T/A Coventry City Football Club and Coventry City start their season with a 10 point deduction.

Football League are a disgrace. Some very interesting documents have began appearing on the internet concerning who owns what at CCFC - whether they are genuine / up to date or not is a moot point though. If the club does go into Liquidation hopefully there will be a proper investigation of SISU and the characters involved in this farce. Seems to me that their whole aim was to try and force ACL into bankruptcy so they could buy the Ricoh for a song. Clearly not going to work.

I know where I will be this Sunday and it won't be Northampton. Hoping to film another video for "Ribbons Everywhere" with lots of audience participation as well.

Excellent news from the High Court earlier today ... the Judge is clearly one person who is not scared of SISU's bully boy tactics. I was talking to Bob Brolly this afternoon and they'd even threatened to sue him if he kept speaking his mind on the radio! Wristbands are doing the rounds now from the Sky Blue Trust. £1 with proceeds going to their fighting fund. If anyone is going to the legends match on Sunday we will be doing lots of filming inside and outside the Ricoh which should include the 'Ribbons Everywhere' song being played just before kick off so we can film the legends and the crowd bobbing up and down.

I would be at Ricoh if I could this weekend - not just to show solidarity but also to remember some of the good guys who have played for CCFC. I hope they get a BIG crowd.

We will be filming footage for a new video to accompany the song "Ribbons Everywhere" at the Jimmy Hill Statue - 1pm. Please come and join us if you are attending the match and are around at that time. All you need to do is bob or bounce up and down and sing the Sky Blue Song with all your might! Unfortunately Lieutenant Pigeon can't make it on Sunday but at least one of them will be joining the celebrations on 24th August at the Lime Tree Club for the weekender that celebrates 130 years of Coventry City. The good news today is that it seems that Preston Haskell is still very much interested in saving CCFC and that Joy Sepalla is getting increasingly annoyed at the adverse media attention she and SISU are getting - hopefully it will persuade her to do the decent thing and sell the club to someone that actually gives a hoot. Reports in the Coventry Telegraph about moving a 'franchise' in are well wide of the mark but I doubt anyone believes anything written in that 'paper' anyway!

There is an excellent article in the latest edition of "Private Eye" (1347) detailing the financial affairs of SISU Capital and its two major executives. Well worth a read !

I've tried a couple of places to get this publication, but they didn't have it, and their website doesn't feature the item in question. Would you care to give us a broad outline of the article?

I notice that Nikki Sinclaire seems to to be getting a lot more heavily involved with the Coventry City Football situation. I wouldn't have thought that she has the ability or in fact the authorisation to offer any solution to this problem? However, perhaps she knows something the fans don't? Although I am not a football fan as such it seems a shame that a great facility like the Ricoh is not being used as a home ground for the Sky Blues.

This is the article in full: The sad demise of the Sky Blues - now a homeless former Premiership club playing League One "home" games in Northampton - has not been reflected in the fortunes of Joy Seppala and Dermot Coleman, the owners of the London-based SISU Capital hedge-fund management group which effectively controls the financially precarious club. The recently filed accounts for SISU Capital show the chief executive and major shareholder Seppala shared with Coleman £359,432 during 2013 in drawings from their limited partnership interests, compared with £139,000 in 2012 and £145,000 in 2011. This is despite an increase in redemptions from the SISU hedge-funds - as happened in 2011. During 2012, management fees fell because the volume of funds dropped. SISU's fees and earnings by Seppala and Coleman are much reduced since 2007, the year SISU took over Coventry. Last April SISU changed auditors - KPMG is out, BDO is in. Back in 2011, SISU settled an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs into the company accounts from 2006 to 2008 with a payment of £161,750. Any outside investors in the SISU-managed ARVO Master Fund would not have been impressed in the history of the Coventry City investment. The Club was forced into administration in March by the Cayman Island hedge fund, owed £10m as a secured creditor for money advanced to the club, as a result of a row with the owners of the Ricoh stadium over the £1m annual rent. ARVO is still backing the latest post-administration owners, Otium Entertainment Group, with a charge over its shares in the club registered last month and signed by Seppala as an ARVO director. But then Otium is in turn controlled by a Cayman limited partnership managed by SISU. No doubt Seppala enjoys discussing the vicissitudes of football finance with her fellow members of the City Takeover Panel, which exists to ensure that "shareholders are treated fairly, are not denied the opportunity to decide on the merits of a takeover and are afforded equivalent treatment". Just like the Sky Blues fans.

Very interesting, thanks for that Mr D!

Tony I have to agree with NOPM and KCIC also. Note SISU are trying to worm their way back into the Higgs Charity complex, Only because there is no other venue that is up to the required standard, ie with an indoor pitch. I know what I would tell them, but I can understand the Charity's need of the revenue. Hope they get cash up front this time.

I think I would ask them for 6 months up-front! I know that the FA have decreed that ACL should still get the £590k owed to them even though ACL turned down the CVA - but have the Higgs charity lost the money that was owed to them by SISU?

Because SISU have had to go cap in hand to the Higgs Charity to beg them to take them back - I would think all monies owed would be paid.