Coventry City fan Richard Keys believes it would be better for the club if they had gone into administration in 2001.
City had the chance to go into administration and clear the debts but those involved with the club at the time decided that it was best to take their secrets to the grave.
Speaking to the CT, Keys said: “When we came down from the Premier League with debts of £60million, that’s when we should have done it when there wasn’t a punishment for doing so.
“But those people who kept the club afloat – Mike McGinnity and Gary McAllister, whose budget changed from one day to the next in terms of the wages – deserve medals because we could have gone under at any time.
“There is an argument that we should have done, but we didn’t and we are still in existence, but it won’t be long unless we get this club back in the hands of people who care about it, who are Coventry people.
“In Gary Hoffman we have got someone who operated at the very top end in the world of finance and whose personal friends are from the top end of football.
"We need to start mixing in the right circles again and he can help us do that.
“I know Gary extremely well and although most people would be of the opinion that Gary is a banker, my experience of Gary is that he is a football man.
“I have, quite literally, travelled the world with him, to Japan to watch England on one occasion, and I’ve stood on the terraces at Gillingham with him, following the super Sky Blues.
“I have seen him mixing comfortably with football hierarchy, and I mean the very top end, and many of whom he would count upon as personal friends.
“And, of course, we know him to be Sky Blue to the core so I can’t think of too many other people who I would like to see running the club to be honest.
“He is 110 per cent solid in terms of his financial acumen and he’s not going to do anything to damage his reputation in the city.
"I know he has got investors because I made the call to him when they spoke to me.
“The reason I did that is because I can’t put a deal like that together but he can.
"My only interest is seeing the club make progress.
“A number of them are football people and while I know that doesn’t always go down too well with some, if the football people have the interests of the club at heart then I can swallow that.
"And they do because Coventry City is a fantastic football club.
"I have been lucky enough to work in most arenas around the world and there are few better than the Ricoh."