Richardson stock so low at Coventry

Embattled Highfield Road chairman rejects calls for resignation as campaign grows to stabilise a club in debt

Three straight wins under their new manager, Roland Nilsson, have helped to ease Coventry City away from the sports headlines of a fortnight ago, when his predecessor, Gordon Strachan, finally departed, officially "by mutual consent", in the wake of last season's relegation and a humbling 0-1 home defeat by Grimsby. Yet the sobering wider perspective of last week's inter-national events and cheer on the pitch have not served to obscure deepening dissatisfaction among fans with Coventry's embattled chairman, Bryan Richardson, who, according to the most recent accounts, was paid a £256,000 salary package for his stewardship of a club almost £50m in debt.

Richardson yesterday dismissed calls for his resignation from many supporters, the local newspaper and Ted Stocker, a former director who is mounting a shareholders' campaign. "There is no pressure," Richardson said. "There is nothing Ted Stocker can do because we, the board, control 79 per cent of the club. We are doing what is necessary to cope with the massive drop in income between the Premier and Nationwide Leagues."

Coventry, like Sheffield Wednesday, Queen's Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest and Wimbledon, are discovering the chill and real financial danger now posed by relegation from the moneyed Premier League. The latest accounts, for 1999-2000, when Coventry were still in the Premier League, make painful enough reading: total debts of over £50m; £20m income but expenditure on staff, mainly paid to players, of £15m. The club made a £9m profit by selling players yet still showed an overall loss of £6.5m. Richardson himself was paid a package worth £256,000 for the year, following £231,000 the previous year and had also been up to £79,000 overdrawn on a loan account with the club itself. Richardson said yesterday that this was "accrued out-of-pocket expenses".

He said yesterday that the club's debt was "under control", made up of an overdraft, soft loans from directors, and "work in progress" on the new stadium project and instalments owed on transfer fees. About his salary, he said: "Put it this way, as chairman and full-time chief executive, I was the 29th highest paid employee of the club." This is a crucial sign of the times: that the manager and 27 players were paid over a quarter of a million pounds each.

Last season was not the one to be relegated: the new TV deals mean that the average Premier League club will this season receive £23m, while in the grittier climes of the Nationwide, Coventry will receive £3m, plus "parachute payments" of £4m.

They have sold several players immediately, including Craig Bellamy, John Aloisi, John Hartson and the young goalkeeper, Chris Kirkland, to Liverpool, which Richardson said had raised around £15m. He added that the club was looking to trim a further "couple of million" from its wage bill. "It's a ridiculous gap, and we have to do what's necessary. The finances are under control," he insisted.

Fans have also been concerned about the plans to build a new stadium with a retractable roof, sliding pitch, cocooned by retailing and conferencing, on the city's Foleshill former gasworks site. The project has been plagued with problems and delay; first called Arena 2000, now Arena 2001, with a new chairman, Andrew Teare, promising to complete the building by mid-2004. Highfield Road has been sold to McLean Homes, apparently for around £5m, although the club have an option to buy it back for the same price plus interest if it does not ultimately build its new arena home.

Over £12m has been spent, largely on de-contaminating the land, plus around £4m on designers and advisors. Yet it has been further complicated by Coventry City Council's offer of the site for the national stadium. Richardson said that if it is chosen, over Birmingham, Wembley – or the option not to build a national stadium at all – the club will not play there, and will expect "huge compensation" for withdrawing.

If it fails as a national stadium bid, Richardson said he was confident that the plans were now progressing towards a positive announcement soon. "All the doubters will be proved wrong." Sources close to the deal say the budget has been reduced from £172m to £125m and there is renewed confidence that a funding package will be secured with Tesco as a key partner. Teare said this week the project has been "refocused in an exciting and cost-effective way".

But the uncertainty, financial morass and, particularly, last season's relegation after a remarkable 34 years in the top flight has led to increased and at times severe pressure on Richardson to resign. He took over in 1991 with Peter Robbins, the son of the former chairman Derrick Robbins, who, with manager Jimmy Hill, had overseen Coventry's famous rise through the divisions to the old First Division in 1967. Quite an achievement for a founder member of the Fourth Division.

Peter Robbins said then they had moved because they were unhappy about a £175,000 loss made the previous year. Richardson recalled yesterday that less than a decade ago, the highest paid Coventry player was then on less than £1,000 per week.

Since then, football has changed dramatically. The 1992 Premier League breakaway and £305m deal with BSkyB, followed by £670m in 1997, took football clubs into a different financial arena, and also attracted a new breed of investor. Geoffrey Robinson, Labour MP and former Paymaster General, bought into Coventry in 1997. Now the club is nearly two-thirds owned by an offshore trust connected to Robinson, Craigavon Limited, which has lent the club £10m, and by another anonymous trust, Sphere Limited, which Richardson represents. A tenth of the shares are held by Derek Higgs, a long-standing Coventry supporter and blue-chip City financier, who is said to provide balance and expertise to the board.

Ted Stocker, a former director, is seeking the 10 per cent of shareholders necessary to call an EGM to discuss a resolution that Richardson be removed as a director. "We believe that Gordon Strachan should not carry all the blame, and given the level of debt, uncertainty over the stadium and dissatisfaction amongst fans, I believe Mr Richardson's time is up," he said, adding he now had support from five per cent of the shareholders.

Richardson has mounted a vigorous, personal response, claiming in an open letter to shareholders on the club website that for two years Stocker has begun to support Coventry Rugby Club and "hardly been to Highfield Road". Stocker denied it, saying he had been to 80 per cent of the games.

Richardson said that many people simply did not understand the economics. "The gap is ridiculous between the Premier League and below and we are taking the measures necessary to cope with relegation. Nobody can affect the situation because we are in control," he said.

This is precisely the root of much supporter unrest, the feeling of impotence as their club slips down, laden with debt. "Sack the Board" is an age-old football response to crisis, but the stakes are almost surreally higher now. Richardson, though, is sitting tight.

davidconn@freeuk.com