When Doug King arrived at Coventry City three and a half years ago he sparked much excitement, plenty of intrigue and a little bit of suspicion.
Emerging completely out of the blue, his purchase of the Championship football club was a time for celebration and hopes for a new beginning that signalled the end of 15 long and fraught years under Sisu’s control.
Since being ratified by the football authorities as a fit and proper owner in January 2023 when his takeover was complete, King has made owning a football club look easy – a man seemingly with the Midas touch.
In his first few months he got a feel for the potential of the club when he joined more than 36,000 City fans for the 2023 play-off final at Wembley. The following season saw a return to the national stadium for an incredible FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United when the club came within a VAR decision away from the final.
Twelve months later, and having changed managers, Coventry finished fifth and made the play-offs again, albeit losing out to Sunderland in the semis – more disappointment but undeniably relative success in terms of where the club had come from following years of dreary mediocrity and decline since losing its top flight status in 2001.
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK!Get more Coventry City news and analysis via our FB page
There may have been an element of luck, King joining just at the right time in the Sky Blues’ evolution from rock bottom relegation to League Two, back up through the divisions to the brink of a triumphant return to the Premier League, and the end of 25 years of hurt for this wonderful one-city club and its supporters.
But there’s also been a huge slice of judgement, the 59-year-old immersing himself in a new pet project, going through the business with a fine tooth comb and investing significant sums of money for the first time in years to bring it up to Championship standards including, crucially, buying the CBS Arena and finally bringing the football club and stadium together for the first time since it was built 20 years previously.
It’s been quite a journey in a short space of time, and that is now tantalisingly close to the tangible glory of promotion back to the top flight of English football.
So how did it all start and what attracted him to Coventry City – a club that had failed and floundered on so many fronts for years – in the first place?
“Oh, my goodness,” said King, leaning forward to pour himself a glass of iced water while gathering his thoughts.
“I was building a business in Stratford on Avon called Yelo Enterprises, which processes rape seed into fine vegetable oil and co products, and that was being run for me by my CEO. It fell into a bit of difficulty at the end of 2019 and then we had COVID and it was a difficult period for us all.
“I had to make some changes there and changed the management and I had to go and get stuck into it, so I was up here for the first time, really, in the Midlands, and I was up here quite a lot because it was a big project in difficult moments. We were in the pandemic and we had to shut the factory, furloughed a load of people and cut costs.
What's cooking
“So I was up here and seeing what was cooking, and I’m a sports fan, right, so I’ve been following football and all sports forever. I went to university at Loughborough so I knew the East Midlands more than where we are today in the West Midlands.
“And I did know of the issues with Coventry City because I think it’s on record that my business partner’s brother had a directorship or something of Sisu Capital. I didn’t know what they were doing with the club. I’d never even talked about it over 15 or 20 years.
“But it came to light at some point in that summer/autumn (of 2022) when the stadium went into bankruptcy through the Wasps and there was a maybe a moment of, ‘I’m up here, I like sport, can I do a better job on that? Can I make a real difference to a community, would it be fun?’
“So it was a moment where I thought I could maybe put it together and, I guess, I tried to do that and obviously I bought the football club just before trying to buy the stadium. I didn’t get the stadium (bought by Mike Ashley's Fraser Group) at that point but obviously it was a big leap and it surprised everybody, I probably surprised myself if I’m honest with you.
“But I felt I could do quite a good job at it and I felt like it had high potential if we could really get things done properly.”
He added: “Obviously it got awkward when I couldn’t get the stadium, which added a complexity of many issues with having a different landlord. I didn’t know how Frasers Group were going to operate it or work with it, so that threw a lot of uncertainty into the situation, but sometimes you’ve just got to see what happens and get on with it.”
Intriguingly, having gone through a period of difficulty with Yelo, the successful businessman then jumped into owning a football club where not many, if any, owners make money because most run at a loss all of the time.
“They do at Championship level,” agreed King, speaking exclusively to CoventryLive.
“But once you’ve decided you’re going to build a factory on a greenfield site in Stratford it’s going to be there for the next 40 or 50 years. Temporarily, we were in difficulty but did I believe in that project? Yeah, I believed in the project. It was just going through some pretty significant head winds and that’s always the case in business.
Coventry City owner Doug King
Coventry City owner Doug King has been talking exclusively to CoventryLive
“But when you put a factory in that’s gonna last 50 years, there’s always going to be some ups and downs in that. It was a critical moment because obviously there had been a lot of investment and it had to start running and operating to start to pay back and get some revenue generating to handle what had been put against it to sort of get the projects off the ground.
“So look, I’ve been in business a long time and it’s just a difficult moment. It’s how you handle it, and then there’ll be other moments that are much better as long as your logic in the plan of the practice in the first place wasn’t flawed. And I never thought it was flawed and so it continues to grow as a very strong business. A quarter of all rape seed grown in the UK is processed at Stratford on Avon, which for me is a pretty huge undertaking from nothing in 2017.”
Back to the football, how does he reflect on the last three and a half years – an incredible period for Sky Blues fans?
“I guess when you put it like that,” he said, breaking into a chuckle, “I think when I came in there was obviously scepticism but also relief that after a long period of time there was at least a change. Nobody knew how the change was going to go, especially because no-one had a clue who I was anyway. So I obviously did some interviews (in the media) and people got a flavour of what we were up to.
“But it did give, I felt, a real lift to people that there was some change going on because I think people were just saying, ‘da, da, da, blah, blah, blah,’ and I felt that there was a euphoric period when it was all done.
“I remember the January window of the 2022/23 and I wasn’t an owner yet because I hadn’t been ratified, so it was all prospective and going through the situation. And I was looking and I was talking with Mark (Robins) and I think we were more nervous about going the other way. We obviously had Viktor (Gyokeres) and Gus (Hamer) but if either of those went down injured then the depth wasn’t really there.
“We’d obviously had a slow start, come back and then we were, I don’t know, 14th or 15th but we were more nervous about not going the right way. So we put in quite a few loan players, if you recall, in that period with Luke McNally, Norton-Cuffy, Wilson-Esbrand, taking in plenty of players to fill out the squad and make sure that we kept ourselves where we were and at least had a better depth in the situation.”
He added: “We played in a particular way that was quite counter-attacking that really suited Gyokeres and we were hard to beat and didn’t concede much at the back with Fadz (Kyle McFadzean) in there. And so we played what I call a bit Derby-ish today. That’s how I feel we were playing that season, with a bit more lethal attack in force with Viktor who could just muscle himself into wherever he wanted to go.
“We went on great run. I remember there was Legends Day and we got beat 4-0, don’t worry about it, off we go again and then there was the goal from Ben (Wilson) at Blackburn and then getting the last point over the line at Middlesbrough and suddenly we’re in the play-offs and we hadn’t been in the play-offs all season. So for me, it was a bit like, it’s a bit lucky that but we’ll take it.
“We fancied Luton in the final, felt it matched up for us. I didn’t think we showed up particularly strongly in the first half and then obviously we came back strongly and were narrowly defeated on penalties. So I think it (the takeover) was a euphoric little move, really, and it was like a big momentum hit of change, and everybody got a little bit into it and that probably took us into the play-offs that year.
“Then the following year we’d had a huge change (with Gyokeres and Hamer leaving), another slow start and then went on a great run and I thought we were playing some really good football.
“The game FA Cup quarter-final at Wolves was... Yeah, it was spectacular. I mean, what a game that was. We played so well and totally deserved to win.”
Coventry City's Haji Wright (right) celebrates with Ellis Simms scoring their third goal of the game during the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final match at the Molineux
Coventry City's Haji Wright (right) celebrates with Ellis Simms after scoring a stoppage time winner in the FA Cup quarter-final match at the Molineux - King's favourite match to date(Image: PA)
Having taken the second half lead at Molineux, City conceded twice in the last ten minutes to look like they were heading out of the competition. But stoppage time goals from Ellis Simms and Haji Wright secured a sensational victory over the Premier League side to set up a date with Manchester United at Wembley in the semis.
Asked if the Wolves match is his favourite to date, King said: “I think just the way we played it. Wolves were going quite well. They had a few injuries but they were going top 10 Premier League, so it was a big game, right, with the winner going to Wembley. So they weren’t mucking around with it but we went over there and I felt we were playing superbly.
“And then to get the two at the end and how it was done was, I’ll never forget it. I think then we tip-toed a bit towards a semi-final and obviously there were bits of stuff going on behind the scenes that probably weren’t conducive to having that sort of togetherness.”
First team coach Dennis Lawrence had left to work in America and the first sign of cracks between Mark Robins and Adi Viveash were beginning to show.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins and assistant Adi Viveash
Coventry City manager Mark Robins and assistant Adi Viveash parted company in the summer of 2024
He added: “We obviously then got beat by Man United. To be honest with you, we were 3-0 down with 65 minutes gone and it was looking like, let’s get out of here. And then obviously it went crazy into one of those that I’ll never forget.”
City battled back to 3-2, courtesy of goals from Simms and Callum O’Hare before Wright converted a 95th minute penalty to take the tie to extra-time, during which Victor Torp was denied a winning goal by VAR in the dying minutes – an injustice that was felt long after the game went to a penalty shootout, losing 4-2.
King continued: “It did affect us, and with what was cooking behind I felt we were in a good position. But we lost five out of the last six, I think, so it was a bit messy at the end. I still felt we had a good chance to hit the play-offs but it slipped away, but it was a great experience.
“We’d had a good, favourable draw that year in the FA Cup. I’d told him (Mark Robins) I wanted a cup run and he gave me a cup run. I do love the cup. I think there’s something special about the cup and obviously we got our best ever moment in the cup (in 1987), so that was good.”
Lost the plot
A summer of turmoil and change off the field saw assistant manager Viveash – the brains behind City’s coaching – leave suddenly and a new coaching set-up put in place. And then, just 14 games in to the 2024/25 campaign, Robins was sacked and Frank Lampard appointed shortly afterwards.
“We had a lot of drama where everybody lost the plot, slightly, in that period of building up to Christmas of 2024,” said the executive chairman.
“And my view is we made the change we had to make and obviously to chew up in the play-offs was pretty spectacular. To be honest we were the best team in both of the games (against Sunderland) and another horrible goal, a 123rd minute ridiculous one. That was a painful one. But okay, that was more good experiences.”
Having incrementally improved to move on from the best team in the semi-finals to then go on to dominate the league this season, does he feel that Coventry are now better equipped to make the jump into the Premier League than they were 12 months ago?
“Let’s say we went up last year, beat Sunderland and managed to beat Sheffield United in the final,” he said. “They’d come back after a slow start, eked into the play-offs, 31 points behind the Champions (Leeds) because they went up with 100 points last year. You don’t know necessarily what you can do in that situation.
“What I think this year has done and is it’s demonstrated to our team what they can do against high level opposition, parachute payment teams with huge budgets. And therefore that has raised their expectations of what they can achieve in their ceilings.
“And I think that is helpful as we move, touch wood, into the top league next season. So I think that will be very helpful for a lot of our players that they have achieved that, rather than snook it in and gone through a different route.”
King, unlike his predecessor, Joy Seppala, is a constant and highly visible attendee at home and away games, often seen punching the air in celebration and singing along the club’s adopted pre-match anthem, We’ll Live And Die in These Towns, by The Enemy.
Coventry City owner Doug King enjoying his matchday experience
Coventry City owner Doug King enjoying his matchday experience
He’s clearly passionate about his project but has the driven businessman become more emotionally invested in the football club than he ever thought he would?
“Look, I was well aware, and I am well aware, of part of the reason why I did this venture is because I understand how important football is to a community,” he said.
“And if it’s done badly it sucks you out because it’s what a lot of people look forward to, and how a football team represents their community is important. It’s visible, other towns and cities see what’s going down.
“So I fully understood that, and that was part of the attraction. The last part of the attraction is I thought I could do a far better job at getting things done properly. And I think the fans, and in business or anything, if you do something properly and it’s done logically and it’s done with care and attention to detail, and it isn’t a bit sloppy and a bit rubbish, then people understand that.
“People are smart. The mass are very smart, they feel what’s cooking and they have good instincts of the situation.”
He added: “When I first came in I couldn’t say whether we were going to get into the Premier League. I said we want to hit the play-offs three out of five years and that I didn’t want to get relegated.
“The infrastructure wasn’t good enough. We had to do a lot of change and I said we’d do our best to hit those aspects as well I could. And the reality is I don’t think that’s any different today than it was at that point.
“I’ve always invested in it because it matters to the community. But I say, if you do all those good things and people can see that you’re doing all those good things in your powers to change culture, behaviour, transparency etc where people know what they’re doing in organised and decent facilities, while attracting the right sort of people...
“You’ve been to the training ground and you can always get a feel in any business, whether it is a good feel or is it a sort of ‘I’m not talking to him,’ feel? I’m used to trying to get the right sort of culture because culture’s really, really important to organisations anywhere.
“I felt that it was obviously there prior to the takeover but we were all at Ryton and we didn’t even own the Arena. They were stuck in a little rabbit hutch where they couldn’t even talk to anyone. So the issue is, we’ve now got ourselves into a proper business set-up in a good way.
“I’ve set that up, we’re getting the results and being top of the league and hopefully getting promoted. That doesn’t happen easily, or often. I didn’t think it would happen but if you get a lot of things right then maybe you get rewarded.”
When Sisu took over in 2007, they did so looking for a quick fix. The hedge fund saw it as an investment opportunity and had a plan to throw some money at it, get promoted as quickly as possible and then cash in.
Precious
Asked if he’s tempted to do the same this summer by selling up and getting his money back with a decent return or whether he’s in it for the long haul, he said: “Well, I think everything in any business... Look, I don’t necessarily treat a football club as a business. I mean it takes money and you have to do what you’ve got to do and you look at the numbers and we run it as a business.
“But the reality is it’s something a bit more precious than any business, just because it’s where it is in the community and it matters how it’s managed, handled and worked.”
He added: “You know that better than I do because you’ve lived the difficulty of when that didn’t work and what then ensued, which was disappointing if you happened to be a football fan in Coventry. You want your team to do well and there’s nobody really investing in it and they’re standing still and you ask yourself how are other people not standing still and why is it me? So I do understand it’s a huge undertaking.”
Carnage
Pressed further and asked if, hypothetically, a billionaire investor/wannabe Premier League club owner came along in the next few months and offered X millions for the club, whether he would be tempted, he said: “Well, there are financial limitations. There are rules and you can’t just parachute in with a few million because there are SCR rules (Squad Cost Ratio rules, capping spending on player/coach wages, agent fees and transfer amortisation at 85% of revenue) and obviously everybody tries to do what they want to do to sort of get around those to some degree.
“But there are rules in competitions otherwise it would be carnage, probably. It is still a bit of carnage anyway but look, I’ve got no answer to that.
“My viewpoint is that we’re on the brink, hopefully, of going somewhere exciting. We’ve therefore got a job to do to try and keep in that exciting place if we can. It’s obviously a big undertaking, financially and business-wise to handle this situation. It’s a big football club. And now it’s got the Arena, and there’s a lot of other things there that need to be developed.”
He concluded: “All my money I’ve created myself. And so on that basis I understand the value of money very carefully, and I understand the value of how we grow businesses and when there are times to do different things in businesses.
“But you should go away in this interview and be aware that I treat it very, very seriously, the position of being in charge at this moment of this institution.”
What do you think of Doug King's ownership so far? Click HERE to have your say.
England's 2026 World Cup kits
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Content Image
Various Prices
England Official Store
Buy Now on England Official Store
England and Nike have launched the new home, away and goalkeeper kits to be worn at this summer's FIFA World Cup. You can get free delivery on all orders with the code: ENGFREEDEL
Get the latest Coventry City headlines sent straight to your phone
Get the latest Coventry City news sent straight to your phone by joining our Sky Blues WhatsApp group. It's a free service. You just need WhatsApp on your phones to participate. To join, just click here, select 'Join Community' and you're in. If you later decide to leave our community, you can do so by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking 'Exit Group'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you are curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Every day, the CoventryLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Coventry City content.
Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner - who you can follow on X - follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.
So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur - that's why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you'll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. You can also get all your favourite content from CoventryLive's Sky Blues team on WhatsApp. Sign up f or breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.