The situation at Coventry City is deeply disturbing. Speculation and uncertainty about the club’s future not only (inevitably) has a destabilising effect on pre-season preparations, but engenders disillusion amongst supporters.
Fans are quite rightly left wondering if any funds exist to replace departed players, and the fact that assets have been sold or loans taken out against them suggests that the future of the club is one of inevitable decline.
Like every other shareholder, the Sky Blue Trust gave up its share in Coventry City in the belief that the investors behind SISU would not only prevent the club from entering administration, but had a business plan that was based on getting the club back to the Premiership based on the development of young, talented players into a first class team.
What we have seen, however, is a sale of valuable players (Dann, Fox), attempts to cash in on academy successes (Conor Thomas) mortgages on assets (Ryton) and borrowing against future season ticket sales in an attempt to pay for day-to-day losses.
It also appears from the annual accounts that SISU’s investors have merely lent money to the club, rather than investing, leaving it just as much in debt as before the takeover - just to different people.
We can only assume that members of the current board are contributors to the SISU Private Equity fund that actually owns the club. No doubt they run successful businesses. But football is a business unlike any other, and success in one does not guarantee success in the other. If their intention was to invest against the profits that might accrue from promotion to England’s top flight, then cutting costs and the wage bill was never going to produce a team that would achieve that. At some point, they will have to accept that, in the standard codicil, “the value of investments can go down as well as up”.
The bid by Gary Hoffman on behalf of so-far unnamed investors sounds tempting to fans: the chance of a fresh start; a self-professed Sky Blues fan at the helm; investment in the team and purchase of the Higgs Charity shares in the Ricoh Arena. However, we need to ensure that, having been once bitten (or twice, if you count the Richardson regime), we are twice shy. Just as in the SISU arrangement, we do not at this stage know anything about the proposed investors. We do not know their backgrounds, the deepness of their pockets or their proposed method of putting money into the club.
If the club is to get to where its fans desperately want it to be - at the very least, challenging for a promotion place - then purchase of the Higgs shares will be insufficient to produce a thriving club without serious investment in the team over a sustained period. At least three years of improving the playing squad is likely to be needed. Until there is real evidence of a team playing attractive, and above all successful football over a lengthy period, stay-away fans will not return on a regular basis, and the club will continue to lose money.
Supporters need to know who actually owns their club, and what the strategy is for achieving success. They don’t necessarily want to know the intricacies of the business plan, but they do need to assure themselves that is viable and progressive. It is unlikely that that is to happen unless there is at least some sort of fan’s representation on the board.
The success of Exeter City (wholly owned by supporters) and Swansea City, which has a considerable share ownership by fans, show that the principle of supporter involvement is not only feasible, but of positive value. Abroad, fans having significant shareholdings in Bundesliga and La Liga clubs are telling examples of how fan ownership can work. Clubs that are genuinely rooted in their communities can have considerable success.
At present, all Sky Blues supporters can do is be spectators as the current takeover drama is played out. We have to recognise that complete fan ownership is unlikely.
What is needed is for whoever ends up controlling the club to allow a significant portion of shares to be owned by individual fans or fans’ organisations, together with a place on the board for their representatives. Only then can the Sky Blue Army have real reassurance that the club is being run on the right lines and with the aim of success on the field - which after all, is the thing supporters crave most.