Doug King: “It was an epic moment in time”

Since Doug King, CEO of RCMA Capital, took over Coventry City FC in January 2023, the club has experienced significant ups and downs. Tom Teodorczuk got up with the club’s owner and chairman following Coventry’s historic FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United.

Coventry City’s season ended last weekend with disappointing results. The Championship football club has not won a match since beating Leeds United in early April, and they finished ninth, losing out on the Premier League promotion playoffs.

However, this month the Midlands squad accomplished something unprecedented in modern times: they rallied a famously divided footballing community in support of their cup triumphs.

Coventry rallied from 3-0 down against Manchester United in last month’s dramatic FA Cup semi-final, scoring three goals and forcing extra time. The Sky Blues thought they had won the game when they scored in injury time in extra time, but a contentious VAR decision overturned the goal for offside. Coventry lost the tie on penalties.

Even after the game, many Manchester United fans expressed their hope that their opponent had made it to the final.

Square Mile caught up with Coventry City owner Doug King in the boardroom following their recent game against Hull City, and the club’s cup heroics were still fresh in his memory.

“It was our second ever FA Cup semi-final and our first one for 37 years and so it was a major milestone because they don’t happen very often,” he stated. “Obviously we were devastated not to be in the final but I thought how we handled ourselves both fan-wise and performance-wise was incredible.”

Coventry City’s Haji Wright (centre) celebrates after scoring his team’s third goal of the game from the penalty spot during the Emirates FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium.

In his day work as a commodities hedge fund manager, King is well-versed in dealing with unpredictability and turmoil; he is also chairman of the RCMA Group and CEO of Yelo Enterprises, an oilseed processing facility in Stratford-upon-Avon.

“For a minute VAR thing to stop an FA Cup once-in-a-generation comeback for a Championship team against a Premier League team was disappointing but in other ways it did us no harm at all,” he says.

“In addition to being an incredible moment in time for all of us to share, it re-established Coventry on the international scale and reintroduced us to individuals who remember us from a different era. We now need to re-engage with other commercial partners and push forward to generate income to invest in a better playing team so that we can aim to exit the Championship.”