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Buy photos » Lifelong Sky Blues fan John Clarke was appointed Coventry City's vice-chairman back in 2011. (s)
SKY Blues deputy chairman John Clarke has today resigned from the Board.
A Sky Blues fan for over 45 years, Coventry born Clarke has had two spells as a club director – first in 1992 – 93 and more recently from January 2011.
A proud Coventrian, who was awarded the OBE in 2005 for ‘Services to the community of Coventry’, Clarke said he always planned to leave the board after two years.
He commented: “It is with profound sadness that I am leaving the board for a second time.
“It was always my intention to stay on a little longer than the two years I had originally planned in order to hopefully see a resolution to the current situation. At the moment that does not appear to be the case.
“As both an Associate Director and more recently Board Director, I have been acutely aware of the fact that SISU have ploughed nearly £45 million into the club, and in more recent times have streamlined the business in an effort to make it more sustainable.
“I have therefore been very unhappy as the local director on the board with the danger of an insolvency event due to the current external legal pressures. I have made it clear that I want the club to find an affordable and sustainable way to stay at the Ricoh.
“The past two years in the club has been the most challenging in my professional career and I leave in the hope that ACL will come up with a resolution that will give the club a platform to build a sustainable financial future and the supporters the success they deserve.”
Clarke has been a benefactor to the club in the past helping in the transfer market and more recently he was personally responsible for bringing in the club’s current three year £750,000 plus club and shirt sponsorship deal.
He has also been active in his role as Deputy Chairman in the community helping to negotiate sponsorship deals and build local relationships with the city’s universities, local sporting clubs, business and community groups.
He returns to his role as one of the club’s Associate Directors, a group of local businesses who invested in the club in 2007.
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