After each matchday programme this season, we publish the regular column from the Coventry City board on our website. Read Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy's column from Saturday's league game against Ipswich Town below:
"Good afternoon and welcome to all Sky Blues fans here at St Andrew’s for today’s game against Ipswich Town.
I would also like to welcome Ipswich Town’s fans, players, staff and officials. It is their second visit to St Andrew’s within seven days, and if the FA Cup tie last Sunday is anything to go by it should be another entertaining game.
Over 2000 Ipswich fans are expected to be here today, which will undoubtably help create a great atmosphere at St Andrew’s and will potentially contribute to our biggest ‘home’ attendance of the season.
At the EFL Clubs meeting in Birmingham last Thursday, HRH The Duke of Cambridge addressed the meeting, asking clubs to back the ‘Heads Up’ campaign. ‘Heads Up’ is a football focused mental health campaign and is aligned with the work already well underway with the EFL’s charity partner Mind, which aims to improve the nation’s health and wellbeing.
The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness and to encourage conversations around mental health. Prince William, without his aids or any notes, spoke eloquently, passionately, and unbelievably knowledgably about mental health and asked clubs to support the campaign in various different ways. We as a Club will look at ways in which we can contribute but will definitely be supporting the campaign.
Prince William’s address brightened up an otherwise dull EFL meeting. The main topic on the agenda was the issue of governance within the EFL, something that the league has discussed regularly since the signing of the latest broadcasting deal. Whilst we will always be respectful and follow governance procedures, it is my opinion that there is not a lot wrong with the existing governance procedures within the EFL.
Last week we held a Supporters Forum meeting at Ryton, where all Supporters Group were invited and several represented – minutes of the meeting can be viewed online. At the meeting, I re-iterated that it was the intention of everybody involved with the Club to come back to Coventry as soon as possible and the Club and the Owners will put information about this out when we are ready and able to do so.
I updated the group on a potential new stadium, and informed them that the land agents engaged by the Owners to investigate possible sites had delivered an extensive report with a long list of 18 sites that were possible for development, which they had shortlisted to 6. There will be a meeting in the very near future to whittle these down to 2 sites. It will be continually evaluated, as other land may become available between the designated preferred site being identified and subsequently purchased.
The Supporters Forum is made up of 13 different groups, covering a wide spectrum of supporters, and is aimed at being the one collective voice of supporters, with a direct line to the Club. Ultimately, no one group can or should lay claim to representing all supporters or their views, however we hope this forum will give them a platform for constructive dialogue and to make their feelings known.
After today’s game, we head back to Suffolk for the Emirates FA Cup Second Round replay – our third game against Ipswich in ten days – with the winners set for a trip to either Bristol Rovers or Plymouth Argyle in the Third Round.
Enjoy today’s game – PUSB
Dave
Dave Boddy
Chief Executive
Coventry City Football Club