Football

There are a couple of signposts to help navigate the barmy situation at Coventry City, to understand how a club can be about to make itself homeless again, and face a vote this Thursday to be actually expelled from the EFL, exactly 100 years since it first joined the Football League in 1919. Most important is to be clear that the owner, the Mayfair-based hedge fund Sisu, has no need to move the club from the Ricoh Arena, the home Coventry city council built for it in 2005, to groundshare with Birmingham City at St Andrew’s, Coventry Rugby Club at their Butts Park ground (capacity 4,000), or any other unsuitable couch-surf. Throughout the sorry recent saga of Sisu pursuing aggressive, losing legal actions against the council, it is clear the toxicity and insecurity surrounding the club are self-inflicted. Wasps, the Premiership rugby club that bought the Ricoh after Sisu had tried to financially ruin the ground with a rent strike and buy it on the cheap, have consistently said … [Read more...] about Toxic tactics behind Coventry’s slide from FA Cup glory to brink of oblivion

Coventry will play their home matches at Birmingham’s ground next season after the club’s owners, the London-based hedge fund Sisu, failed to conclude a deal to stay at the Ricoh Arena with the arena’s operators, Wasps. The rugby club said that negotiations had broken down because Sisu would not commit to a “fundamental principle”, to bring no further proceedings about the ownership of the arena, after years of court actions that Sisu have launched and lost. Wasps and the football club said in statements that Sisu had given such an undertaking at the beginning of talks in April to extend Coventry’s tenure at the Ricoh. However, it was then revealed by the BBC that before the talks started, Sisu had in February made a complaint to the European Commission about Coventry city council’s 2014 sale of the Ricoh to Wasps. The rugby club said in its statement that Sisu had not informed them that the complaint had been made but nevertheless continued … [Read more...] about Coventry announce groundshare at Birmingham on ‘very sad day’ for club

A British diver who helped in the Thailand cave rescue has insisted he is not a hero. Rick Stanton, 56, was one of the two men who first found 12 young footballers and their coach alive nine days after they became trapped in the flooded cave system. As he and several other UK divers involved in the operation returned home yesterday, the retired firefighter said: “Are we heroes? No. “We were just using a very unique skill set, which we normally use for our own interests and sometimes we are able to use that and give something back to the community.” Mr Stanton, from Coventry, and John Volanthen from Bristol were the first to reach the stranded group in the Luang Nang Non Cave in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand on July 2. Describing their relief at finding the youngsters alive, he said: “We were counting them until we got to 13... unbelievable. We gave them a bit of extra light, they still had light, they looked in good health. Then when we departed, all we could … [Read more...] about Thailand cave rescue: British diver who was first to find missing football team insists he is no hero

The 12 boys and their football coach freed from a cave in northern Thailand after 17 days underground were found 'by their SMELL', revealed the British diver who was part of the rescue effort. John Volanthen from Bristol was one of a number of foreign expert divers drafted in for the rescue of the 'Wild Boars' football team when they went missing. An international search operation was launched, led by Thai officials and the boys were finally found after nine days with Mr Volanthen being one of the first to find them. Speaking to the BBC Mr Volanthen has described the moment he and his fellow divers found the children alive - and how they were found 'by smell'. He said: "It's been mentioned by some members of the press it was luck, I would say that's absolute not the case. "Our procedure in this situation is we're swimming along an underwater passage wherever there is air space we surface we shout and also we smell and in this case we smelled children before we actually saw them . "The … [Read more...] about Revealed: Thailand cave rescue divers used SMELL to find young football team trapped 3km underground

Two British divers who rescued 12 Thai teenagers and their football coach from a cave described how they had to resort to their “last option” to free the boys as they “didn’t have any more time.” Jason Mallinson and Chris Jewell were sent in to bring the boys to safety through the flooded Tham Luang cave with near-zero visibility. After freeing 11 out of the 12 teens, Mr Mallinson told of his terror when he put an oxygen mask over the final boy - to find it did not fit. He said: “We put it on him, really strapped down tight so his nose was flattened against his face and there was a big gap under his chin. We just couldn’t get it to seal.” The British diver added the boy had already been dosed up with ketamine to keep him calm during the escape, and feared he could drown. Running out of time as heavy rainfall loomed, Mr Mallinson made the quick decision to use a replacement mask on the boy to get him out as soon as possible. “We knew … [Read more...] about British cave divers reveal astonishing inside story of Thai football team rescue