Coventry, City of Peace and Reconciliation, aspiring City of Culture, is the focus for a legacy that has been at its heart now for 133 years. Coventry City Football Club has given voice to the community at its most confident but also during more vulnerable times. The team, through cheers and tears, continues to stimulate the reputation of the city to which it belongs.
In recent years, an important aspect of this reputation and culture has been the Coventry City Academy. The Academy is a school of excellence that devotedly nurtures outstanding talents, talents such as those of Callum Wilson and James Maddison. It is an environment in which youngsters are inspired to develop their skills but also where they learn about life. It is more, much more, than just a gymnasium or a football pitch.
The Coventry City Academy is ranked fifth out of all the seventy-two clubs in the Football League. Increasingly, it provides the very lifeblood of our football club.
The future of the Academy and its Category 2 status is now under direct threat. Wasps have submitted a planning application for the Academy’s home at the Alan Higgs Centre in Allard Way.
The Supporters’ Consultative Group is representative of a variety of Coventry City supporters, supporters’ organisations and demographic groups. It includes, among others, members of the Sky Blue Trust, Coventry City London Supporters’ Club, Sky Blues in the Community, Coventry City Former Players’ Association, Coventry City Diamond Club, Coventry City Vice-Presidents’ Club and Covsupport News Service.
The individual members of the SCG unite in deploring any potential threat to the stability and future of the Academy. We urge all parties to transcend vested interests and difficulties. The continuing primacy of this facility for the use of the Coventry City Academy is of crucial importance both to the community and its football club.
We urge people to protest and to support the Sky Blue Trust’s Save the Academy Campaign.
As a well-known local writer once observed, ’There is no virtue like necessity’.
Jonathan Strange,
Chairman, Coventry City Supporters’ Consultative Group
contact@ccfcscg.co.uk