Coventry City FC (The Bantams, Sky Blues)

I'm not convinced yet that the Council are the good guys in all this. Leaving aside arguments about whether they should ever have got involved, why is it that now they can buy out The Higgs Shares when they couldn't previously ? I'm of the opinion that the council decided they wouldn't sell to SISU and made the rest of their decisions around that. Where does it leave the Wasps fans ? What happens if Wasps lose their place in the Premiership ? Where does it leave Coventry Rugby Club - feeder club to Wasps ? The problems at CCFC go back way before SISU turned up, and I'm sure I don't need to mention the 3 names involved.

I agree the whole thing has happened very quickly and the stakeholders such as supporters haven't had a proper chance to have their say. The corporate layout of Wasps is almost as convoluted as that of SISU. Re: the council - I doubt they would ever have contemplated selling to SISU as they don't trust them and quite understandably so. But I also think they've wanted this problem off their back for a long time and have regretted ever getting involved. So when someone offered them a deal they were happy to accept just so it wasn't their problem anymore.

Hi all With the Sky Blues fans practical action campaign, having brought the ill-thought & brain-dead Northamptonshire idea crashing to its knees, maybe the Wasp fans might try to bring about a similar fate to their management's scheme. If they do, maybe their part of the Ricoh ownership will be up for sale in a buyer's market. Who knows?

Hello all Disorganised 1 and AD: The Council are legally bound to protect the local taxpayer. They have acted lawfully and secured the best commercial deal possible. SISU's continued litigation action has cost the Coventry council tax payer in excess of £500,000. I suggest there are over 500,000 reasons why they would not sell to SISU. Besides, any sale to the current owner of the football club would be immoral considering their behaviour during this whole episode. SISU have failed to make any serious market value offer to purchase ACL/HIGGS shares over the past 7 years. Mistakes were made by the Richardson/Robinson regime but when SISU acquired full control of CCFC in 2008 the deal they imposed on shareholders saw the club emerge debt-free. Any debt the football club now has is entirely due to SISU's mis-management. I was in the public gallery at the council meeting and not one speaker spoke against the proposition. The vote "for" was unanimous, 54-0. The majority of Wasps fans feel betrayed and I understand that. Perhaps they should consider starting a new club. This would be the course of action I would support if SISU build their new ground and take CCFC outside the city boundary. Sky Blues fans should now focus on the ARVO (Seppala) charge on OTIUM which has been in place for over a year. How much money has been taken out of Otium and sent to ARVO (Caymen Island registered) ? What is the current debt owed to ARVO? Will the ARVO charge be used to liquidate CCFC? These questions continue to be ignored by the media and our current owner.

Don't get me wrong - I'm totally supportive of the councils actions from a business perspective and they've done everything as is required. I'm purely saying given the effect upon Wasps, CRFC and CCFC fans it would have been better for those people to have had more of a say and for the potential deal to have been made public sooner. But again, I can see why it wasn't, as it would just give SISU et al yet another opportunity to hold things up with costly and time consuming legal action. I think maybe the council would've liked a slightly better deal, but were willing to do a deal and quickly to get the problem off their backs.

"Legally bound to protect the local taxpayer." was conveniently forgotten when they came to the rescue of R, R,& M and plunged the local taxpayers into this mess. I recall how SISU gained control of the club, and how people were forced to hand over their shares. In no way am I suggesting that SISU are the good guys in this. I am saying that I am tired of confidentiality agreements, secret deals, and the club being used as a political football.

Hello Disorganised 1 I agree to a certain extent in what you say. As a former shareholder I am disgusted that SISU did not stick to their promises. I am afraid the litigation process will be continued by Seppala because that is the way she operates. My advice to you is to concentrate on the ARVO CHARGE/DEBENTURE placed on OTIUM. This enables her to take any money out of Otium when she likes. Invest in the team? No chance! Arvo now owns 99.97% of Otium shares so it is the true owner of CCFC, not SISU. How much money has gone to the Cayman Island company in the past 12 months? What interest charge is attached to the Debenture? These are some of the questions our local media should be asking. Don't hold your breath... NOPM for me until SISU are gone.

Coventry City have scrapped a £2 matchday ticket price increase in response to the BBC Price of Football study and supporter feedback. The League One club has also reduced the price of beer sold in the Ricoh Arena by 50p. Club chief executive Steve Waggott said: "The price of football in general has been in the news this week. "As a club we are very keen to find ways to make attending our matches more affordable for supporters." What the cut means to Coventry's prices Adult tickets in the Family Zone are £18, concessions are £13, juniors are £9, JSBs over 12 are £5 and JSBs under 12 are free In the Standard Zone, adult tickets are £22, concessions are £15, juniors are £11, JSBs over 12 are £7 and JSBs under 12 are £3 In the Premium Zone, adult tickets are £25, concessions are £18, juniors are £13, JSBs over 12 are £8 and JSBs under 12 are £4 Waggott continued: "The matchday price increase had been in place to encourage more supporters to buy in advance. "We've done a great deal already. Our Junior Sky Blues - who are under 12 - can attend for free or sign up for a free season ticket in the Family Zone when they are accompanied by an adult. And our adult season tickets and match packages dramatically reduce the 'per-game' price. "But this is an issue we are going to continue to look at because football is about the supporters and should be accessible to as many people as possible."

Ah, the old SISU tactic of leaving it to the very last second to drag things out for as long as possible....... In a move surprising nobody, CCFC (well one of its many related companies - it's never clear who) have at the last minute decided to make a bid for the 50% Higgs share in ACL and thus drag this out for as long as possible. Of course they know CCC/Wasps can and will veto the sale anyway, but just to make sure the bid is unsuccessful they've also made the bid conditional on receiving sensitive financial info from Higgs, something they are almost certainly never going to receive and thus once again allows them to claim to be the 'victim' of 'bullies' and being held up by those nasty people not playing ball. Although it is worth remembering last time they asked for similar info, they then completely reneged on the deal and made a new offer at an absolutely ludicrously low price. And of course it totally fails to explain where a company in liquidation, that during the admin process was found to have NO ASSETS, suddenly finds over £2m behind the sofa? Or, if that money is there, why it has not been used to pay off the creditors, instead of being used to buy something the people in charge described as 'worthless'? Either the administration was correct, there is no money and this bid is just wasting everyones time, or it is and someones been telling a lot of porkies!

CCFC and chasing a dream. When Brian Richardson took over the club he spent millions on chasing the fans' dream of becoming a top premiership team. He bought the best players his money would allow but they were not good enough and CCFC continued to struggle. The fans began to drift away and so the club's revenue streams dwindled. In a desperate attempt to try and turn things around he sold Highfield Road which turned out to be a terrible decision. He was left with a contaminated piece of ground and insufficient money to build his new stadia. Robinson and then Mcginnity came along and soon departed, leaving the club with massive debts and no money. We all know the detail of the worst day in CCFC's history when SISU took over, and the selling off of any players with any kind of value, resulting in our current position in the third tier of British football. SISU have tried to obtain the Ricoh for peppercorn money instead of making a fair and proper offer and I do not consider them worthy of even a half share of the stadium.The sooner SISU depart and CCFC can start rebuilding cannot come soon enough for me.

It would nice to think that this could be Kings Lynn all over again - but it obviously won't be

The major difference between the Kings Lynn result and the shocking result today is that back in the early 60's we had a saviour in the shape of one Jimmy Hill on the horizon. Today, alas, there is no prospect of anyone appearing to rescue the once proud Sky Blues.

AD, ARTFUL and MIDLAND RED I agree with every word you have said. BEESMAN, I understand your sentiments regarding Jimmy Hill. However, I don't think any manager could turn things around with these players. The club desperately needs a new owner who can make a sensible investment to improve the team. I believe serious investors would come forward if the club was put up for sale. NOPM for me until SISU are gone.

Just a thought. I haven't heard anything recently about SISU's appeal against the recent High Court judgement against them. If their offer for a 50% share of ACL is successful - will this mean that they then drop the appeal, or are they using this in order to gain access to otherwise private information that could then be used as a separate attack on the Council? I wonder.

Hi Tony S I think your second theory is correct. SISU fishing for information to use against the Council.