A TALE OF ONE CITY
Band of brothers building a new club after falling out with famous, old one
IT is 12 years since a splinter group of supporters decided that Manchester United’s buy-out by the Glazer family was the final straw.
Disillusioned with the corporate ethos, they created another club, taking football back to its roots.
Several other protest clubs have formed since the birth of FC United of Manchester, and one of the newest is in Coventry – with this season seeing significant strides towards the dream of having a fan-owned Football League club in England’s ninth-largest city.
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“People have different tipping points,” said Jason Kay, one of the four founding fathers of Coventry United, “and ours was when Coventry City moved to Northampton Town to play their home matches four years ago.
“I was a fan – as were the others – and our Saturday afternoons had been taken away from us. It set us thinking. And a few months later Coventry United Football Club was up and running.”
Jason is one of four friends who shared that vision.
While secretive American hedge fund SISU has been overseeing the slow collapse of Coventry City, this band of brothers decided to build something instead.
Now, after three promotions in as many years, United will stand just five rungs below their City neighbours this summer.
Having recently signed a deal to play home matches at the 3,000-capacity Butts Park Arena, home of Coventry Rugby club, they now have all the facilities in place needed to host Football League fixtures. “The ultimate aim is to get into the Football League with a supporter-owned club in Coventry,” added Jason. “Can it be done? Yes.
“We have 120 people now in the background, working away. The supporters run the club.
“We’ve put in some money. But we asked ourselves: ‘Do we want to earn anything from this? The answer from all of us was ‘No’.
“We were at a christening, the drinks were flowing and the idea was brought up. By the end of the evening, we’d bought a club, signed a few big-name players and were planning an open- top bus ride around the city parading the Champions League trophy!
“The acorn grew from there. We wanted a Coventry-based club, and Coventry Spartan took our eye. They were bottom of the Midland Combination Second Division. The lowest of the low.
“I think their manager and secretary thought all their Christmas’s had come at once.
“We told them we would achieve three promotion in five years. We’ve got three in three. No money exchanged hands. They were happy to do it for the good of Coventry. We changed the name because we wanted to make it appealing to the whole of the city.
“It was obvious that we went for ‘United’. It is what we were trying to do – band everyone together.
“Lady Godiva is on our crest and the club play in red and green – the civic colours.”
Kay, Jason Timms and Marcus Green and Peter Schofield are the four professionals responsible for this phoenix rising from the ashes.
Kay has just retired from the role of chairman after four years. Timms negotiated the next step – the lease of the ground – and they anticipate really pushing the club onwards next season once they have their own home.
Volunteers
Timms said: “It’s all run on volunteers: car parking, stewarding. It costs the club nothing. We have attendances of up to 700. When we took over it was eight – and one of those was walking his dog.
“The agreement with the Butts will take us on to another level. It is in the centre of Coventry. A fantastic stadium, one bus ride away from everywhere. And it’s 10 minutes’ walk from the train station.”s
Kay and his fellow owners remainr Coventry City fans. TheyT went to the Checkatrade Trophy final last month and saw a flicker of hope as Mark Robins’s side defeated Oxford, three w weeks before relegation hit.
Kay added: “The club might have been c**p, but it was ours. And if it came to being between City and Coventry United, I’d support both. I couldn’t lose.”