1995: City’s Big Bang?

Amid the ongoing search for the ‘Golden Share’ which permits membership of the Football League, Coventry City administrator Paul Appleton has been delving back into the club’s history to try and untangle the web that has been woven as to the structure of the club and its associated companies.

Friday’s Coventry Telegraph report into the sage states the following:

‘Mr Appleton said investigations included into the complex history since 1907 when a company called The Coventry City Football Club Ltd was set up, since when it operated as ‘the entity responsible for managing the business affairs of the professional football club.’

That company became CCFC Holdings Ltd, and Coventry City Football Club Ltd was incorporated as a subsidiary on May 16, 1995 when the club was competing in the Premier League.

It is claimed when the club was relegated in 2001 back into the Football League, the golden share was registered with Coventry City Football Club Ltd.’

1995 was certainly an interesting year in the history of the club as it was the year that City’s ambitions for the future suddenly went up a few notches.

‘Bumped’

Phil Neal had begun the 1994/95 season as manager, his meagre transfer budget boosted by the sale of Phil Babb to Liverpool after a successful World Cup. Neal spent a club record £2m on Dion Dublin and City, as they had done fairly regularly for the best part of 30 years, bumped along near the foot of the top-flight of English football.

Then, in February, Neal was sacked and replaced by Ron Atkinson in a move designed to place CCFC firmly on the footballing map as Big Ron remained at that time one of the most high-profile managers in the game.

The Sky Blues continued to struggle near the foot of the table (both at the end of the 94/95 season and throughout the 95/96 campaign) but it was no longer because they were not able to compete in the transfer market.

Suddenly the finances were found to allow Atkinson to make a string of big-money signings and plans began to be put in place for the club to move away from Highfield Road to a purpose-built stadium capable of hosting 45,000 people.

For a while, under Gordon Strachan, City punched above their weight but relegation, when it came, was made all the worse by the ambitious nature of the previous few years. The club has struggled to recover since.