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Full name | Coventry City Football Club | |||
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Nickname(s) | The Sky Blues | |||
Founded | 13 August 1883 (as Singers F.C.)[1] | |||
Ground | Coventry Building Society Arena | |||
Capacity | 32,609 | |||
Owner | Doug King | |||
Chairman | Doug King | |||
Manager | Frank Lampard | |||
League | EFL Championship | |||
2024–25 | EFL Championship, 5th of 24 | |||
Website | ccfc | |||
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Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed the Sky Blues after the sky blue colours that have featured prominently throughout their history, which they have worn continuously since 1962.[2]
Coventry City formed as Singers F.C. in 1883 following a general meeting of the Singer Gentleman's club. They adopted their current name in 1898 and joined the Southern League in 1908, before being selected into the Football League in 1919. Relegated in 1925, they returned to the Second Division as champions of the Third Division South and Third Division South Cup winners in 1935–36. Relegated in 1952, they won promotion in the inaugural Fourth Division season in 1958–59. Coventry reached the First Division after winning the Third Division title in 1963–64 and the Second Division title in 1966– 67 under the management of Jimmy Hill. In the 1970–71 season, the team competed in the European Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, reaching the second round. Despite beating Bayern Munich 2–1 in the home leg, they had lost 6–1 in the first leg in Germany, and were eliminated.
Coventry's only period in the top division to date lasted 34 consecutive seasons between 1967 and 2001, and the club were inaugural members of the Premier League in 1992. Following their relegation from the top flight in 2001, they dropped down to League One in 2012 and League Two in 2017. Coventry won the FA Cup in 1987, the club's only major trophy, beating Tottenham Hotspur 3–2 in the final.[3] The club also won the EFL Trophy in 2017, in the same season that they were relegated to the fourth tier.
Coventry returned to Wembley in 2018, beating Exeter City in the League Two play-off final. Manager Mark Robins built on this success guiding the Sky Blues to eighth in League One the next season, and then led the club to promotion back to the EFL Championship as League One champions in 2020. In the 2022–23 season, Coventry secured a play-off place in the Championship, before losing the play-off final to Luton Town on penalties.
For 106 years from 1899 to 2005, Coventry City played at the Highfield Road ground. The 32,609-capacity Coventry Arena was opened in August 2005 to replace Highfield Road, but the club has only used the stadium periodically since a long-running dispute over rent began in 2013.