Coventry City F.C.

Nickname(s)
 Ground
 Owner
 Chairman
 Manager
 Current League
 EFL Championship
 Website

**Coventry City Football Club** is an English football club based in Coventry in the West Midlands. The team competes in EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. They are nicknamed the Sky Blues in recognition to the colour of their strip. Coventry City were formed in 1883 as Singers F.C., and they joined the Football League in 1919.

The club was an inaugural member of the Premier League in 1992 and had spent an impressive 34 consecutive seasons in the English top flight prior to their relegation in 2001. Following eleven seasons in the second-tier Football League Championship without any significant success, Coventry were relegated to Football League One in 2012, the first time in 48 years that the club played in the English league system's third tier. In the 2016/17 season, they were relegated to League Two, where they won the play offs and were promoted to League One. After two seasons, they regained promotion to the Championship, and in 2023, they went to the play off finals at Wembley, but they lost to Luton 6-5 on penalties.

From 1899 to 2005, Coventry City played at the Highfield Road stadium. In 1981 it became the first all-seater stadium in English football. By the late-1990s the club needed to construct a larger stadium and chose a site in the Rowley's Green area of the city. The 32,609 capacity Ricoh Arena was opened in August 2005. But following a rent dispute with the ground's owners the club opted to play their home games at Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium starting in the 2013–14 season. A return to the Ricoh Arena was announced on 21 August 2014 by the club after a one-year absence. In 2019, they were exiled from the Ricoh Arena a second time, being forced to play at St Andrews Stadium. In 2021 however, they returned to the Ricoh Arena, which had been rebranded as the Coventry Building Society Arena.

## Club colours

Coventry's home shirts are either completely or predominately sky blue. However in history, different 'home colours' were worn. In 1889, the then Singers FC wore pink and blue halved shirts (mirroring the corporate colours of Singers Motors). Furthermore, in the 1890s, black and red were the club's colours. In the early 1920s, the club wore red and green (to reflect the colours of the city crest). Sky blue was first used by Coventry in 1898 and the theme was used until 1922. Variations of blue and white were then used until the 1960s and the beginning of the 'sky blue revolution'. The colour made its return in 1962 thanks to the then manager, Jimmy Hill.

## Rivals

As of 2012, Coventry fans consider Leicester City, with whom they contest the M69 derby to be their main rivals. Aston Villa are the club's traditional rivals but in recent years this has become somewhat one-sided rivalry as the latter have several stronger local rivalries. A lesser rivalry also exists with Birmingham City. After being relegated from the Championship in 2012, fellow West Midlanders Walsall were regarded as their main League One rivals. In the 1960s & early 1970s Wolves were the biggest local rivalries & the teams had some classic games during that era, including the 1967 game at Highfield Road when 51,452 watched Coventry win which ultimately resulted in Sky Blues pipping Wolves for the Second Division title.