BB: Paul Fletcher welcome to the brolly show, how are you?

PF: Hi Bob, I’m excellent today, nice to see the sun shining, and I’m feeling good.

BB: Did you get a break at all, you’ve had such a busy bad time through the close season, did you get a break?

PF: Not really, got away for a few days with some friends and wife and family but not really, it’s been graft, and it needs to be, obviously it’s a busy time for the football club and we need to be there.

BB: Okay, the obvious question, and it’s come from a while pile of places, let’s just talk about it, I’m just looking now at this text just come in, “When the Manhattan transfer happens will Gary (Editorial: I assume he means Geoffrey Robinson) happen to be chairman, will there be a new board. Here’s looking forward to an exciting season” Gary Bench from Longford. The Manhattan deal…

PF: Well let me tell you about it, I’ve just come back from New York.

BB: Months ago you and I spoke, and you were 98% of the way there, right, 98% of the way. For the last two or three months we’ve been looking at 2%. What the heck is going on?

PF: No that’s not quite right. What happens in these deals is someone shows an interest, they get a fag packet calculation of where they are, and they go into what they call due diligence. Now due diligence is where everybody has to openly say “this is the state of our business”. Now it’s easy for me at the football club to do that. But it’s not easy for other companies who I am introducing to these strangers to provide them with the information, and it’s a massive amount of information. We’ve obviously got problems because we’re dealing with the council, the local authority, who have their own rules and regulations, we have a charitable trust who is governed by the charitable trusts; It’s extremely complicated but when you get to the bottom of it, I have to say, when you get to the bottom of it, you’ve got a football club that’s up there battling away, trying to survive in this arena, when it just doesn’t have enough money to survive basically.

BB: Okay let’s talk about this deal; everybody knows the way this club is set up. We don’t know the figures but we know the charity had to buy half of the ground because Coventry couldn’t afford it at the time, we know that Bryan Richardson sold Highfield Road; we’ve got all of these things. So you knew all of these things before the deal, who set up due diligence for this length of time. The way I look at it is this deal is dead and buried and other people who might be interested- they can’t even look at it at the moment.

PF: No Bob, that isn’t the case, when the deal is dead and buried, I’ll walk through your door and say “Bob, the deals dead and buried”. But until I do that, it isn’t. There is lot’s of interest in CCFC, believe me.

BB: Yeah from other people!

PF: Yes, but people aren’t interested in a quick fix. This is the coming together of a multitude of problems. Let me answer your first question first. Let me tell you where the problem lies. In the very early days, it was all well and good, of the previous chairman, or the chairman before I joined the project, to transfer all the clubs income streams into this company called ACL, Arena Coventry Limited.

BB: Which chairman is this?

PF: Bryan Richardson. It was a good deal and I wouldn’t say it was a bad deal. He transferred a lot of the clubs income streams into Arena Coventry Limited, because he was going to share 50% of new income streams. Let me give you an example: Rod Stewart concerts, conferences, banquets, hotels; lots of other revenues. So he was quite happy to introduce all these revenue streams. The problem is, as soon as the football club sold its shares in the arena, it left behind all the key revenue streams that allow it to survive.

BB: Who sold the shares in the arena then, whose decision was it?

PF: The particular board of Coventry City when apparently, (I was at ACL in those days)…

BB: So you were sitting at the arena and they were negotiating with you?

PF: No not with us, they were probably negotiating with the bank saying you need to put up more money, somebody must have said what have we got as assets and we have the shares in the arena let’s sell those, I as chief executive of ACL was told one morning that the football club has sold it’s shares in the arena company.

BB: So the club made the decision to sell?

PF: Absolutely.

BB: Okay, fine, that’s something I wasn’t aware of.

PF: The club made the decision to sell its shares in the arena company and hindsight is a wonderful thing; it probably seemed the right thing to do at the time. But unfortunately because it’s not been able to buy those shares back, lots of revenue streams, for example food and drink, for example car parking, all these income streams that Leicester, Derby, Nottingham Forest all the other football clubs have the football club don’t have, and so no wonder the football club is struggling away. And we have to be very very careful that we have a very rich ACL, and a very poor football club, and that’s what we have at present.

BB: Ok, let’s go back. Coventry City needs to own a football ground. Nobody in their right mind would buy CCFC without a football ground. Well, who would? You’re going to have to pay the debts.

PF: Yep.

BB: My mate in Ireland bought Renault for a pound, but he had to pay 18million in debt, Bill Cullen. It’s the same kind of thing at Coventry City. If you buy the club, it isn’t worth a lot but if you take the debt then the clubs yours. You have to be buying this arena so somehow, there is this stumbling block, and so what is taking so long? Has anybody got real figures?

PF: Oh yeah, we’ve got real figures, everybody knows now, the Manhattan group have worked it out, and anybody else looking at the arena will quickly come to the conclusion and just as you’ve said, no-one would buy the football club as an entity because it will never have enough money to pay for itself. But it does have an opportunity through this option to buy 50% shares of the arena company through the Higgs charity, let me just talk about the Higgs charity for a moment. It is my view that if the club ever wanted to put their shares in a safe pair of hands they couldn’t have put them anywhere better than the Higgs charity. The charitable trust was set up for the benefit of people living in Coventry. Very well managed, very clean organisation, they’re holding the shares for the football club at a let’s call it a knock down price. But, everybody’s realising that you need to own the whole entity to make it all work, especially if you’re going to go for premiership football. Nobody wants to bundle along in the Championship forever more. That mustn’t be a vision; any new person coming in we must, must focus all our efforts on premiership football and in doing that you need to own the whole building. Now then obviously you need to start negotiating with the council, who have their own regulations that they are bound by and they’re negotiating their half in what is a very successful business now. The arena is a very successful business- Why? Because it’s got half of the football clubs income in there.

BB: When the deal was done, why wasn’t the deal done to say that we take half of the food and drink and everything sold on match days. Who was doing the negotiations?!

PF: Bob it was because if you owned half the arena you get half of that anyway. Let me just go through that. You also get half of the additional income, from extended car parking, hotels, Rod Stewart concerts all these things. You are far better off by being in the arena- the problem is when you sell your shares. That’s when the cards start to tumble.

BB: So how could anyone look at Coventry City on the outside and buy this club? It seems like it’s nigh impossible.

PF: No, no, because it looks at the opportunity. It knows that when the football club starts winning on the field, the stadium will be full. You know that, and I know that. People will return. Now there are a lot of places where the people won’t return, this is a great history but we must have a new vision and a new beginning in the club, we’ve bungled along now for 2 years everybody’s done their best to try and get it but it’s not quite right yet, we’ve tried a new manager. Now we’ve got a dynamic team a dynamic manager and a fantastic stadium. What we need now is the vision to take the club back into the premiership and we have to do it in two years.

BB: But it doesn’t matter who’s got the vision, have the council said to you “I want 50 million, 80 million for our share”; has anyone talked to the council? Has anyone put in a formal offer to the council?

PF: Not at this stage. Now you asked earlier what is due diligence, due diligence is saying “let us have a look at your books, let me have a look at your projections, let me have a look at what you think the future is going to be like, and I’ll either tick a box or cross it.” Now to get hold of that information is extremely complicated and I don’t blame the council or ACL for not making that information readily available. They have to be very very careful, I can’t just walk in and say “here’s a potential new owner I’ve just met off the street, show him your next potential 5 year cash flow, I just can’t do that. So, there is a process we have to go through and unfortunately that process is bogged down in bureaucracy and it takes an awful lot longer than you anticipate, and we’re bogged down in the middle of it all.

BB: Lionel has asked what way has everything worked, what is the sequence in the package of events. If I’m Manhattan sports, I’ve got all these zillions in my back pocket, who do I come and talk to first. Do I come and say, “Geoffrey here’s your 11 million” or whatever his investment was, there’s the Alan Higgs money you want and now we’ve got our shares, now let me go and talk to John McGuigan at the council and say there’s the X amount you wanted for the Ricoh, is that the job done?

PF: No probably the route is this: You talk to the football club and the football clubs bankers and say I’m the potential new owner and if I take over here are my terms and conditions for the takeover of the football club and then you know that the football club has an option to buy a half share from the Higgs trust. And then you go and talk to the Higgs trust and sort out a deal with the Higgs trust. And then if you want the whole entity, then you go and talk to Coventry City Council. Now in the perfect world you want to know what the outcome of all those meetings are going to be and that’s where to problem is. It’s hard for somebody to tie all those 3 companies together, well four companies because the banks involved, and to put and offer forward because they don’t fully understand the extent of all the agreements.

BB: How much is the bank owed?

PF: Let me see… I don’t think it’s a secret to say that the football club is about 34 million in debt.

BB: Does that include the 11million from Geoffrey?

PF: That does include shareholders investment.

BB: Well, that’s a lot of money the bank manager wants.

PF: Yeah, well you know this is no different from a lot of other football clubs. It’s easy to say we should be on an even bank balance. You can’t do that. We’re not a lot different from a lot of football clubs.

BB: I’m not saying that. What I am trying to work out is what would it cost to buy Coventry City?! This is what I’m saying. How much is it going to cost to come in- is it a 100 million, 200 million, 150 million, 80million to put this club back on level footing instead of messing about with loan players and bits and pieces.

PF: Ok let me answer. I would say this. I think the way that it works is everybody should sit around a table and say how we can make Coventry city football club a great football club. Not for the board, not for Paul Fletcher but for the people of this city. Not only the fans Bob, but the little old ladies proud about Coventry. It’s not just the fans Bob, but the whole of the city. Now what we are saying is when we can make this club great for the city of Coventry then we’ve got a chance. But I think when we’ve got people covering the corners and doing what’s best for themselves without some real care and consideration of Coventry city. It becomes extremely hard. Now for me when I used to be chief executive of ACL, I don’t think the people of Coventry want a fantastically successful ACL, I think they’d rather have a fantastically successful CCFC. Now at present, we probably have a situation where ACL is making many millions of profit and the football club is losing. How stupid is that? The whole reason for setting it up was to give the football club a new beginning. We’ve got to get back in the premiership and we’ve got to do it in the next 2 years.

BB: Is it true that the take over isn’t going to happen and that Mr Hopkins and co will not be buying the Ricoh Arena says Roger in Coundon. Well we’ve already gone through that Roger. Everything is not right and it’s taken far too long to sort out- this is the fans view of every fan he talks too. And we’ve already said that unfortunately it’s going to take a long time.

PF: Bob it’s a fair assumption from fans that this is a difficult situation- it’s going on and on and on and it’s protracted. And sometimes things happen like this. When I was over talking to Gary Hopkins for 2 days when I was in New York last week I looked him in the eye and said “You as a Coventry City fan, if you ever you think this deal is off you must tell me” and he said I will, I guarantee you I’ll tell you if this deal is off.

BB: Have you spoke to anyone else about buying the club?

PF: There’s quite a number of people interested.

Phone In (Paul's Responses)

PF on asked about raising the expectations of the fans: What I will say is that I need to raise fans expectations. We need to have high expectations at the club. This will be a great club once we get over this log jam that we have at present. It’s an extremely difficult time, it’s extremely frustrating but let’s not forget we’re building the team on the field. The fans don’t want a takeover, what the fans want is a team that wins every Saturday truth be known, and the fans think they will get that via a takeover. I understand that, but what we need, and don’t forget Iain Dowie has been building a fantastic side with limited resources over the close season and you’ll start to see some of that tomorrow night if you come to the Espanyol game. What we are number 1 is a football club. This is the backroom stuff that I must tidy up. And I must deliver this on behalf of the fans and I’m giving it every hour I’ve got, please believe me. Myself, Mal Brannigan, the Chairman, Ken Sharp and I honestly believe this will happen.

On Dowie being promised money:

PF: Just to be careful with the manager, every manager I’ve ever known, and I’ve been in football for 40 years, has always said they want more money, we understand that. Our deal with Iain when he joined us was when the take over happens you will be given money. That was the deal. It is impossible for the club to find the money that he wants earlier than that. The great success Iain Dowie has had has often been on a small budget. He’s done extremely well on small budgets. He needs to come to the table and he needs to pick up this challenge as well, because it will not happen overnight. I know you’re frustrated, I’m frustrated, we’re all frustrated, but once it happens, then that will be the new beginning for Coventry city and that’s the key to it.

On the ticket office being closed after 12:30 on a Saturday:

PF: Oh boy, I asked Ken Sharp to answer this for me and I sent it back because I didn’t have enough knowledge at the time. I have been immersed in this, when the ticket office opens and closes. I have been immersed in the take over. And I believe that it’s the right thing to close the ticket office at 12:30.

BB: But buy online? Not everyone has a computer?

PF: I accept that

BB: So if they don’t get there before 12:30 they don’t get it?

PF: Once you open it after 12:30, do you close at 1:30? Then I’ll have a hundred letters saying “why do you close at 1:30?” If you need the money you don’t employ staffs who sit there doing nothing. What tends to happen is you get 100 complain, and when you do keep it open 2 hours 3 people come. You hear all these different stories but I accept that we are a front facing club who listens, and we do listen. I answer every email and letter I’ve got but sometimes I have to pass it round my department to get the correct answer.

On any potential signings we’ve missed due to the delay in the takeover:

PF: Yep. Players have slipped through because we couldn’t afford to buy them at the time. The reason I’m being honest with you is because if you ask me a question I’ll give you an honest answer. We would have loved 3 or 4 (players), Iain Dowie came into my office and said there’s a great player who’ll cost us 3 million- I don’t have the cheque to write for 3 million. So there’s nothing I can do Bob.




BB: Have you been talking to Miami Dolphins by the club, can you confirm or deny that?

PF: Miami Dolphins to buy the club? No no! I bumped into a guy from the Miami dolphins while I was over in Portugal on the football league and I had a chat to him about stadiums of all things, but certainly not about buying the club. Certainly not the Miami dolphins.

BB: There is obviously a privacy thing and all that but the other people you have spoke to, about buying the club. LA Galaxy, have you spoken to them, the people with Beckham and stuff like that?

PF: No

BB: Nobody involved there?

PF: No.

BB: So the people you have spoke to do they seem like genuine contenders?

PF: Absolutely! Without going into too much detail, one of the problems Gary Hopkins has got is that he’s got a very serious investor. This serious investor has a family problem at present. Now would you, if you had a family problem, jump on a plane for a few weeks to another country? You tend not to do that. Ok it’s one of those things, and these things tend to happen. We don’t need it at this point in time but it is what happens.

On the money investment from local company’s scheme:

PF: We did buy the players, the ones you see now, that’s the investment.

BB: Is there any chance of having to let people go to keep the bank manager happy before the season starts?

PF: Yes there’s always that. We’ve got a bigger squad, we’ve bought in 9 new players and only 2 and 3 have gone. Probably the squad needs thinning a little. I’ll be talking to the manager about that tomorrow and yes there will be some players who need to go. Teams in our division operate with a slimmer squad then we have at present and clearly the less players you have left the more you can bring in once the finances come in.

BB: Paul since I started telling people you’re coming in, in case I forget it by the end of the programme else there’ll be mayhem, may I thank you very much indeed for sitting down, everybody says you’re the king of spin. Now, I’ve known you a few years, and I believe you genuinely tell the truth if you can. Can you be 100% honest?

PF: Yes, I can, but I don’t always have to tell it exactly as it is, I’m not allowed to. One of the problems I’ve got when I write fans a letter I try to write an open letter telling them as it is, I get a thousand responses saying no you should do it that way no you should do it that and you’re almost trying to tell me how to manage the job. Sometimes I have to do what I think is the right thing. Often I open a door, and I have to be very careful in what I say and what I don’t say and what I like to do, I like to be honest with the fans. I don’t want to be the king of spin. I just want to be the king of success. I want the club to be successful, and sometimes I have to avoid questions but I try and answer as best I can.

BB: At this moment in time, the Manhattan deal according to you is still rumbling on, what is the stumbling block? Is it the council, is it the charity or is the arena company? The council I know are saying there are 2 or 3 million coming in on a yearly basis. Now you say that’s the clubs money? Half of that anyway is the clubs money.

PF: No, let’s be clear here. Half of the clubs money went into ACL, and this entity called ACL, the football club owned half of it and the council owned half of it. It’s only right that when the council put their money in that they took their half share. That’s fine. The Higgs charity own the other half now, and I’m saying that all that money that went across from the football club into ACL, the football club get none of it now.

BB: Ok so if the charity bought if for you and are holding onto it for you then are they making money from the pies and the burgers and the pop?

PF: Well clearly yes, because they are 50% owners of ACL.

BB: Are they holding that money for the football club or keeping it for that charity?

PF: I don’t know, you’d have to ask them, but it’s only right that if you make an investment that you make the profit from that investment. There is nothing wrong with that. But what I’m saying is, unless the football club can get that half share back, and preferably the whole of that arena- because if you remember, I believe Bob before I arrived here, I don’t know you tell me, you know better than I do, I believe it was the football club who saw that plot of land. I believe it was the club who got it together for about 20 million and I believe it was the football club who sold it to Tesco for 60 million. So I believe it was the football club who introduced 40 million pounds into this project. Now move it on, and there’s been a few decisions made over that time, it’s the football club who are getting nothing out of it! So something has to give somewhere.

BB: So as Nigel says here, “I have been text many times, is Coventry city council stopping the takeover. Ask him the question” says Nigel. Well, is it the council?

PF: It could be said so, it could be said.

BB: So are you saying it?

PF: No I’m not saying it, not at this moment in time, if ever it came to that point I’d be honest with you and say so. At this moment in time, it isn’t Coventry city council, which are stopping this process going forward. But it could be, it could be. And I’m hoping that Coventry City council will start to say we play a massive part in CCFC’s future. We’ll get rid of all the garbage from the past and all the difficulties we’ve had and we will all come to the table and concentrate on getting our football club back to the premiership. That’s what I hope that they will do.

BB: So it hasn’t got to the council yet then, so they’re not the hold up. Due Diligence is these people have looked at you, you’ve looked at them, but it’s just hit a brick wall. I don’t care, you could buy the country in the time it’s took…

PF: Bob, let me give you an example of the process. Just supposing I say Due Diligence is 5 sets of people and you need to see, you go to number 1, yeah that’s fine, number 2, number 3 but we’re not showing you our books. Why? Well because of A, B, C, D. Well how long will A, B, C, D take? 3 weeks, 5 weeks and it goes on and on and on. Before you know it this interested party gets frustrated, and everybody gets frustrated, and we all get frustrated with each other because each of the 5 parties are all looking after their own interest. Quite rightly. And what I’m trying to say to everybody, whether it be the ACL, Coventry City council or the Alan Higgs trust there comes a time when we all have to say, do we want a premiership club in this city? Are we all going to have that as our, not number 1, number 1 is looking after the interests of our own organisation, are we all going to buy into this promise of getting into the premiership in 3 years? Once we do, that’ll be the only chance we have of sitting round that table and make it happen.
 

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