Coventry City Plans For Administration

Coca-Cola Championship club Coventry City has made plans to go into administration should a proposed takeover fail to be finalised within the next 10 days.

The club, which has debts of £37m, remains hopeful that a takeover by entrepreneur Ray Ranson and Sisu Capital will be completed before the deadline but, should the talks fail, Coventry will go into administration and consequently incur an automatic 10 point deduction.

Commented chairman Joe Elliot: ‘We’ve done this because the clock has been ticking for a long time. We’re in very serious negotiations with Ray Ranson and Sisu Capital and we’re convinced we can bring it together quickly.

‘There is now a 10-day deadline on it because we’ve filed notice of intent but that doesn’t mean we’re in administration, it means if things don’t go right, we will be.

‘We’ve got to push forward as quickly as possible to get ourselves a deal and take Coventry back into the Premier League.’

A club statement read: ‘This is merely a legal process protecting the bank and its creditors. It should speed up the takeover of the club and therefore take Coventry into a solvent financial situation.

‘Following recent speculation, the club can confirm can that staff and player wages have now been paid and we look forward to a successful conclusion of the takeover in the near future.’

Coventry’s Ricoh Arena stadium was jointly funded by the council and the Alan Higgs Trust – a charity run by businessman Derek Higgs – and is run by Arena Coventry Limited (ACL).

The club have not filled the stadium’s capacity of 32,600 since moving there in August 2005.

IT company Ricoh earned naming rights to the stadium with a sponsorship deal worth a reported £10m.