Mr Justice Males has given his reasons why Coventry City Council were not doing anything wrong when they bailed out Arena Coventry Limited to the tune of £14.
The Judge who threw out the case brought by Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd), Avro Master Trust and Sky Blue Sports And Leisure and order them to pay costs to the City Council, said in a statement: "I am not persuaded that there is an arguable case that the loan by the council constituted an unlawful state aid.
"It was made on commercial terms, in order to protect the council's investment in ACL, in circumstances where ACL's bank was threatening to hold ACL in default.
"The alternatives would appear to have been either the insolvency of ACL which (largely because the claimants had caused rent to be withheld as a means of exerting pressure in the commercial negotiations, which had led to an unsatisfied judgment of the High Court in ACL's favour) was not in a position to pay the loan, or acceptance of the claimants' proposals which the council did not consider to be in its commercial interests.
"It is clear from public statements made by members of the council, in particular councillor Mutton, that at least some members (of the council) have a strong animosity towards the claimants.
"However, I do not accept that this demonstrates that the council made its decision to offer a loan to ACL for an improper purpose or in bad faith.
"Its purpose was the legitimate commercial purpose of protecting investment in ACL.
"The claim that the decision was ultra vires (unlawful) is dependent on a showing of an improper purpose and therefore has no independent life once it is determined that the council's purpose was not improper."
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