The threat of legal action to one Coventry City supporters website by Coventry City Football Club (Holdings) Ltd whilst the Coventry Evening Telegraph newspaper and its ICCoventry website openly seeks and publishes supporter views on Mr McGinnity and his tenure as Chairman, apparently free from legal recriminations as are the radio stations, in my personal opinion, smacks of one rule for them and one rule for us.
This has led to supporters feeling the libel action currently in the hands of solicitors representing all the parties involved and the demands made on the website owner is an attempt to stifle free speech amongst Coventry City supporters via any means other than those approved (or whom pay money to the club) and get the City supporting websites closed down.
It’s a feeling supported by evidence that one City website manager last week was advised in a phone call by a third party that they should take a more positive stance towards the club. Despite that site being a current club sponsor and one likely to take out more sponsorship in the future and a site whose main function is to act as a news service, covering a very wide spectrum of opinion from many sources.
The right to free speech is something that millions lost their lives for in two world wars plus countless others fought for. The fact that we all have an opinion to which we are entitled and are free to voice this opinion by whichever form we choose is something that must never lost sight of.
If one takes a high position of office or is in a high profile position in a company, then one can expect an amount of flak when things are not going as planned. In a high profile and highly emotive business such as a football club, you definitely can expect more flak than say some running a commodities company, if you are not in the top six and challenging for promotion and are losing substantial sums of money every week.
At the moment, club/website fanzine relations are in total disarray and this sorry mess could have been prevented if the club had kept lines of dialogue open, like Mr McGinnity agreed to do when myself and Neville Hadsley met him six days after he took over as Chairman back in 2002.
I hope when this legal action is sorted by whatever course decided upon by those involved, lines of dialogue can be reopened and we can all work together in an open and upfront manner.