Time To Act - Linnell

It is a well-used cliché that being a Coventry City supporter is a roller-coaster ride, and we all know that in recent years that we have been on the down slope more often than the up.

Yet it is truly ironic that just as we appear to have a manager and a squad of players capable of at least securing a promotion playoff place the club's position off the pitch should have sunk so badly.

Now we can wallow in that, we can remember fondly the glory of 1987, and even 1967 for those that are old enough, and we can spend hours arguing over where it all went wrong. Or we can all get off our backsides and do something.

A few people - and it will only be a few - reading this who can make a significant contribution to the club's financial plight could provide six or seven figure sums to keep the club alive. It is highly unlikely that they will ever see a return on that money, so they would effectively be kissing it goodbye but they would enjoy the eternal gratitude of thousands now and that of generations to come.

The rest of us can do our bit by turning up to back the team, particularly in the next three home matches. We face Watford and Colchester United in the League, and West Ham United in the Carling Cup, all within seven days.

It is asking a lot of people to turn up in numbers for three matches so closely bunched together, but the club has made a special ticket price offer for the Colchester fixture. What it needs in return is 25,000-plus attendances to get behind the team and put much needed finance into the coffers that way.

The events of the past few days have occurred at almost breathtaking pace, particularly in the light of the protracted negotiations over a possible takeover.

However one really positive out-come is that my old friend Joe Elliott is now at the helm. Joe is Coventry through and through, born and bred and still living in the city. He has rarely, if ever, held back in his support of anything taking place in Coventry.

He is the pioneering Chairman of the Coventry Transport Museum and he was the first ever advertiser when Mercia first went on air in 1980. The club could have no one better to see it through this crisis. People talk of the club going into administration as if it is a cure-all.

Apart from costing a 10-point penalty in the League and consequently placing serious doubt about any chance of promotion this season, it would also see some of the club's supplier companies go to the wall with the loss of jobs across the region.

At least one of the clubs who went down that route fairly recently is now blamed directly in their town for the collapse of local businesses with hundreds put out of work. Not only that, but the club in question is amassing debts all over again in its quest for promotion and is heading straight back towards the situation that forced it into administration in the first place.

As chairman of the Coventry branch of the Chamber of Commerce, I will do what I can in the interest of local business to persuade those concerned to avoid administration, but there can be no better argument than to show those decision makers how much the club means locally by people turning out to back the team.

A successful city football team is important for everyone. I well remember it being claimed that all production levels at Ryton were broken the Monday after the cup final because of morale of staff was so high.

An image of a city is greatly enhanced by having a successful club, especially in the top flight and the economic spin-offs in terms of international image and recognition of boundless so there are real business benefits for the club being successful.

English football is viewed around the world and the value of having the Coventry name up there at the top level on screens across the globe is probably incalculable.

When George Curtis, John Sillett, Brian Kilcline and the others brought the cup back home in 1987, an estimated 250,000 lined the city's streets to salute and applaud them.

We simply want 10% of that number to turn up at the Ricoh now. If they don't, then Coventry City Football Club clearly does not matter to enough people to be worth saving.

If they do, we have a much better chance of seeing our Sky Blues back where they belong - playing in the top-flight of English football in a superb stadium that deserves nothing less.

Stuart Linnell MBE, Chairman, Coventry branch, Coventry & Warwickshire, Chamber of Commerce.