PSB Group Issue Open Letter To Joy Seppala

Last updated : 18 February 2015 By Covsupport News Service

The Preservation Sky Blues Group have issued an open letter to SISU boss Joy Seppala.

The letter reads as follows:

"Dear Mrs Seppala

I write to you as Group Chair of PSB (Preservation Sky Blues).  A group of long standing Coventry City supporters who are upset and angry at the decline of our football club. A group with a simple aim of doing all we can to ensure the preservation of Coventry City Football Club. A goal we are all firmly committed to.

In recent weeks we have written to Tim Fisher and also for balance the leader of Coventry City Council Ann Lucas but I think it is fair to say that  the massive problems we have at CCFC lie firmly at your doorstep. You are the person with ultimate responsibility. You are the one with the power to do the right thing and give Coventry City FC a chance of recovering from this "god awful " mess that you and your organisation have created.

On Saturday at Sheffield United my group has organised a protest at which we will be highlighting the lack of investment by SISU. We find it abhorrent that you have allowed our club to drift towards the abyss in the way you have. Failing to invest properly in the playing side, the only real purpose of any football club, whilst continuing to throw endless amounts of cash on pointless and ill conceived legal challenges which appear to have no chance of succeeding. 

Can you confirm whether there will be any investment for next season which will go anywhere close to matching the ambition of city fans ? The failure to demonstrate any ambition whatsoever this season has been clear for all to see.  Should the worst happen and we do get relegated what happens then? Can we then expect another battle to retain our Football League status?

Our message on Saturday will be clear. Our club is in massive crisis and whilst this policy of non investment continues our club gets ever closer to dying. It's time for SISU to do the right thing and put the club up for sale.

If you insist that the club is not up for sale, as Tim Fisher has articulated we would ask just why you are still here and what is your actual game plan ? The Sky Blues are on the verge of League 2 football with crowds dwindling to pathetic levels, not just because the product on the field of play is poor but largely due to a lack of faith in you and your SISU board. 

To use footballing terminology that you may or may not be aware of. "You have lost the dressing room " and appear to have no strategy in place to recover that situation.

You have placed great faith in Tim Fisher as chairman to help turn round fan relations but I think most Coventry City fans would agree his has been a disastrous tenure. We cannot understand why he remains at the club if you genuinely have ambitions to turn around our fortunes. Any other business would be quick to dispense with someone so closely connected to such failure. Perhaps Mr Fisher has more of a financial interest in CCFC than we are led to believe. Maybe you could clarify the position here as my colleagues and I speak to many city fans and many of them are at a loss as to why a change has not yet  been made. The image of the football club is incredibly poor right now and Tim Fisher has played a big part in that being the case. 

You as owner and figurehead also  now need to come clean about your real intentions with regard to a new stadium. We see no sense at all in pursuing this option at what will be massive expense  for a club that you have driven into the ground. We would also point to your failed tactics in trying to gain control of the Ricoh and the disastrous move to Sixfields as prime examples of why you will find it so hard to convince Coventry City fans to have any faith in you or your current board in being able to successfully build such a stadium. Not withstanding that we need to know the truth. Tim Fisher has said a lot of things, promised information that has never come to fruition and referred to deadlines that have just drifted. Few people believe that a new stadium will be built. It's time for YOU to tell us clearly and unambiguously what your precise plans are and quickly. Fans will simply no longer  tolerate the promise of "jam tomorrow".

The level of dismay at our clubs current plight is frightening. If you were to spend some time in Coventry and actually listen to fans who care passionately about whats happening then you would realise that the levels of anger have now risen to a worrying and unhealthy level. We are a group of professional people and everything we have done so far and will continue to do will be measured, peaceful and respectful. Unfortunately we are witnessing now is a new wave of groups forming and ideas being suggested that go beyond anything that we would want to be involved with. Unfortunately however we can only legislate for our own groups actions.

Simply put you're running out of time. Virtually everybody we have spoken to has said they will not be purchasing season tickets for next season at the Ricoh. . Lifelong fans have now turned their backs on the club and more will follow them in the summer.

It is our opinion that Coventry City Football Club cannot recover with SISU at the helm. You have entered the "unique" world of Football  and it has proved a monumental mistake. In business you need to know when the time is right to "call it a day". That day is now here. We urge you to try and retain some credibility and self respect by doing what's clearly right for the city of Coventry and the supporters of the city's football club. 

Please do the decent thing and put our club up for sale.

In the meantime we will push on with our own course of action. That being the single minded aim of Preserving OUR Sky Blues.

Best Wishes

J. Taylor

Group Chair
PSB 
Preservation Sky Blues"