Crunch weekend for Coventry
John Chambers
June 28, 2008

One of the biggest names in the history of English club rugby is in danger of disappearing. But the players and supporters of Coventry have united for one last-ditch effort to save their club. John Chambers reports.

Coventry is one of the oldest clubs in England, with a history to rival any in the world. For much of its history the club provided one player after another to the English national side. David Duckham, Peter Rossborough, Peter Jackson and Fran Cotton are just four of a list of illustrious names to pull on the blue and white hoops.

However the club is less than a week away from being consigned to a future that is far from rosy and visitors to Coventry city centre this weekend will almost certainly have bumped into players and supporters asking for their help.

In February Coventry Football Club Ltd was placed into administration with debts including £730,000 in unpaid taxes. A new company, Coventry RFC Ltd, was allowed to acquire the business and assets and given permission by the RFU to see out the 2007/08 National League One season.

However on June 16th, after a series of meetings, the RFU gave owner Andrew Green 14 days to satisfy various obligations to enable the club to continue to play, including the raising of a £100,000 bond to be paid on June 30th, a deadline later put back until July 2nd.

Coventry had hitherto been one of the more ambitious clubs in the league. Under Green, who took over in 2006, the squad had gone fully professional and with their Butts Park Arena ground Coventry had a facility that could be developed relatively easily to the fulfil the requirements of Premiership rugby.

However events have conspired to de-stable the Midlands outfit which have culminated in the present dire situation.

Former coach Mike Umaga, who resigned in November 2006, was awarded £38,000 by an employment tribunal for unfair and constructive dismissal. Umaga, brother of former All Black captain Tana, had been suspended by the club two weeks prior to his resignation for "serious allegations".

And earlier this year an online petition was launched to reverse the controversial banning of a supporter for giving a statement against the management in a civil court case that the club eventually lost.

On the field the situation has not been much better. Despite its full-time status the team failed to make an impact on the league, finishing a lowly ninth.

Meanwhile Green has laid the blame for the financial meltdown at the feet of the previous administration.

"In the immediate months following my purchase of the company that was Coventry Football Club Limited in August 2006, the management team and I discovered numerous financial problems associated with the previous regime," he said in a statement at the time of the High Court ruling. "Despite our very best efforts, a number of these historic problems proved insurmountable and we were left with no choice but to seek an alternative solution from our professional advisers."

Since the RFU's June 16th announcement the Coventry Telegraph newspaper has thrown its weight behind an appeal to raise the £100,000 needed to continue in NL1. To date over £30,000 has been donated but if the remainder is not found in time then Coventry face an automatic relegation which would effectively put a club that has been around since 1874 out of business.

The last word goes to Peter Rossborough, who is administering the appeal fund and this week outlined the club's plight to the local business community.

He said: "I never thought I would find myself in the position of trying to rescue Coventry RFC, it would have been unbelievable in other periods of the club's long existence, but for a variety of reasons it has happened.

"Owner Andrew Green has bent over backwards to accommodate the RFU, but the bond was just one demand too many.

"I really appreciate that the Coventry Telegraph has taken up the baton and is running with it, and I'm very hopeful that it will have a huge impact on the Coventry public who have been fantastic supporters of the club in the past and that we can get the funds needed.

"We can't let a club that has been here since 1874, and been an excellent ambassador for Coventry across the whole country and abroad, to disappear.

"I just hope that local supporters, former players and businesses will put their hands in their pockets and make a donation of however much to ensure the future of Coventry Rugby Club, and I thank everyone for their support."

For more information about the appeal to save Coventry rugby club visit www.coventrytelegraph.net.

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