Speaking to the CT, Peter Knatchbull-Hugessen who is also a director of ACL said: "Had we not built the Alan Higgs Centre they would have lost the academy," he said, "so we saved the academy. (Although there are rumours that they would not have got funding for the site if there was no academy)
"When the Arena was bubbling around, if we had not bought the club's shares it would have gone into administration because it had not got enough money to go on with and the Ricoh Arena would not have been built.
"So we have got the interests of the football club at heart but we are not there to bail out a set of businessmen. "The role of the charity is to do things for the good of the city of Coventry."
"I am afraid that some companies go to the wall. "We don't want to see that happen but the charity can't support a gamble, and football is a gamble."