Firstly I would like to thank the Football League for the
invite to meet with representatives today.
The Football League took the opportunity to explain their
position in regards to ownership and the ground share with Northampton. The Football
League stressed to me that they felt they were in a position where they had to
choose between Coventry fulfilling their fixtures for the upcoming season, or
the choice of leaving the club in a precarious position just three weeks before
the start of the season.
I put questions to them, which were garnered from Coventry
fans about ownership, the application of fit and proper persons tests. This conversation
was one that was very strained at times as I tried to put football fans views forward.
They failed to convince me that they can adequately
administer the fit and proper persons test
It seems apparent to me that law and regulation outside of
football that relates to business actually constrains what the Football League
can do in many situations.
I have
made strong representations to the Football League that fans do not feel they
are being listened to, and during the course of the meeting I made an
invitation to them to attend a public meeting that I can arrange where fans can
question the Football League themselves. They could not yet say whether they
could fulfil this or not but they will get back to me about whether this could
be facilitated or not.
There are no innocents in this situation and once again, I
call for all parties to sit down and talk.
I welcome the chance to talk to all the stakeholders in this
story and will continue to work with fans to highlight the unacceptable on-going
situation.
As a football fan, I am disappointed and frustrated at text
book answers I received. Coventry is not the first club and most certainly won’t
be the last – isn’t it about time we had some reform of our national game?
