Coventry City is an English professional football club based in Coventry, in the west Midlands of England. The Sky Blues currently play in the Championship, in the second tier of the English pyramid.
Nicknamed the Sky Blues because of the colour of their home kit, Coventry were formed in 1883. However, at the time, they were not known as Coventry City, but rather as Singers F.C.
From 1967 to 2001, Coventry City had a lengthy uninterrupted spell in the top flight, spanning a total of 34 years. Only Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal had longer tenures in the top flight of English football at the time.
Coventry City won the FA Cup in 1987 and the Football League Trophy in 2017.
They have also won the second tier of the English Football League once and third tier twice, the last coming in the 2019/20 season when they lifted the League One trophy.
Coventry City Football Club was formed by employees of Singer, which was a British motor vehicle manufacturing organisation, in 1883. Sixteen years later, they changed their name to what they have been known as ever since, Coventry City.
The Sky Blues were voted into the Football League in 1919 but didn't properly start their rise up the ranks until the 1930s, but when it did they made a good run towards the top.
They won the Third Division South title in 1936 after edging Torquay United 2-1 on the final day of the season. This meant that Coventry City earned the right to return to Division Two after 11 years in the wilderness.
In 1961, Jimmy Hill took over as Coventry City manager when the club was in Division Three.
Hill had previously played for Brentford before an 11-year stint playing for fellow West London club Fulham.
The 1963/64 season saw Hill lead Coventry City to the Division Three title with a 1-0 win over Colchester United on the final day before they were promoted to Division Two for the following season.
Three years later, Hill immortalised himself in the Coventry City history books by leading the team to the 1966/67 Second Division title, thus ensuring their promotion to the First Division for the first time in the teams history.
Despite leading the team to the top flight, Hill left Coventry City in 1967 to move into broadcasting. However, this didn't stop Coventry, as they continued to improve and make team history.
Under the guidance of Noel Cantwell, Coventry City finished sixth in the First Division in the 1969/70 season, their highest finish in English league football so far.
Coventry City qualified for the Inter-City Fairs Cup for the 1970/71 season. In the second round, they came up against Bayern Munich.
They lost the first leg 6-1, but managed a heroic 2-1 win at Highfield Road over the German giants in the second leg of the tie. Nevertheless, Coventry succumbed to a 7-3 defeat on aggregate.
At the close of the 1976/77 season, Coventry City narrowly avoided relegation, but not without controversy.
Their 2-2 draw with Bristol City meant that both clubs avoided the drop, while Sunderland went down.
Coventry City and Bristol City were accused of match-fixing, as they both avoided relegation as a result of their draw and the result of the Sunderland match had been shown to them on the stadium screen before the fixture between Coventry and Bristol came to a halt.
Coventry City reached the semi-finals of the League Cup in the 1980/81 campaign, the furthest point they had ever reached in the competition.
However, after taking a 3-2 aggregate lead after the first leg West Ham United, they threw it away, losing 2-0 in the second leg, thus missing out on a final at Wembley.
That same year, Highfield Road became England's first all-seater stadium.
In 1987, Coventry City won their first and only major trophy ever, lifting the FA Cup.
Manager John Sillett led the club to a 3-2 extra-time victory over Tottenham Hotspur in an entertaining final which saw Spurs defender Gary Mabbutt deflect the ball into his own net to deliver what proved to be the winning goal.
Dave Bennett and Keith Houchen scored Coventry's goals in normal time, for a side that feature club legends such as goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic, Lloyd McGrath, Brian Kilcline, Trevor Peake, Micky Gynn and Cyrille Regis.
Coventry City also won the FA Youth Cup in 1987.
Just 19 months later Coventry suffered one of the biggest FA Cup upset in its history, losing to non-league Sutton United in the third round in January 1989.
Coventry were founding members of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season, finishing 15th in its inaugural campaign.
Player-manager Gordon Strachan took the helm in November 1996 and managed to avoid relegation on the last day of the season, though they were helped by a three-point deduction imposed on Middlesbrough for cancelling a fixture.
Dion Dublin was top scorer in the Premier League in the 1997/98 as Coventry once again hit their highest ever finish in the Premier League era reaching 11th position, they had previously finished in that spot in the 1993/94 campaign.
In 2001, Coventry City were relegated from the Premier League, ending their 34-year spell in the top flight.
Strachan was sacked five matches into the 2001/02 First Division season.
After a 106 years, Coventry City move out of Highfield Road and into the 32,609-seater Ricoh Arena in 2005.
The Sky Blues came close to going into administration during a disastrous period for the club in 2007.
Ray Ranson and hedge fund SISU Capital Limited completed their takeover of the club after rushing in to save the day with 20 minutes to spare.
The next few years were marred by financial peril as supporters grew increasingly wary of the SISU ownership.
In 2013, Coventry went into administration and were forced out of the Ricoh Arena and made to play their home game over 30 miles away in Northampton's Sixfields Stadium.
Over a year later Coventry return to the Ricoh Arena but protests against SISU continued to rumble on.
In March 2017, Robins returned for his second spell in charge. He led the club to the EFL Trophy, their first trophy in 30 years, but he was unable to stop Coventry getting relegated to League Two.
Their revival and climb back up the leagues started in the 2017/2018 season.
A solid eighth place finish in the 2018/19 League One season was then succeeded by winning the title in the shortened 2019/20 season to gain promotion back to the Championship.
Robins kept Coventry in the Championship for the next two seasons despite increasing financial pressures and more problems with the stadium owners.
Doug King completed a full takeover of Coventry after buying the remaining shares from previous owners SISU Capital in January 2023.
Coventry came within a whisker of ending their 22-year exile from the Premier League in the 2022/23 season.
The club - who played seven of their opening nine league games away from the CBS Arena during the season after the Commonwealth Games' Rugby Sevens wrecked the pitch - were bottom of the Championship on October 19 and still in the relegation zone as November began.
But they rallied and lost only once in their final 17 games to finish fifth in the Championship and they edged out highly fancied Middlesbrough in their play-off semi-final.
But it wasn't to be in the Championship play-off final against Luton.
The match finished 1-1 after extra-time and Fankaty Dabo's penalty miss meant a famous 6-5 sudden-death shoot-out victory for jubilant Luton.
It was a cruel way for the season to end - a £170million clash between clubs that have both gone through the mill during their decades away from the big time.
In November 2024, after after seven years and eight months in charge Robins' time at the club finally came to an end.
Robins was surprisingly sacked after the 2-1 home defeat to Derby, which was their seventh defeat in 14 Championship games and left them 17th in the table.
It was Robins' second spell in charge where he had taken the club from League Two to Championship, plus 2022/23 play-off final and the 2024 FA Cup semi-finals.
A statement from the club read: "Mark masterminded and built several teams over that time that outperformed their budget, outperformed their infrastructure and brought back a playing style, credibility and belief to our city that had been lost and eroded over many years.
"These achievements will never be forgotten by those who witnessed such deeds and the broader community that once again began to rekindle their affection for our club.
"There is no doubt that Coventry City today would not be where it is today without the inspired actions of Mark and his team.
"The club is well aware that this is a difficult moment after over seven very successful years at the helm and this decision is not taken lightly.
"The performance of the team over an extended period however has just not been good enough and as such the board of the club has decided to make an immediate change in leadership."
On November 28, 2024, Coventry City named former Chelsea legend Frank Lampard as their new head coach.
Coventry City's fiercest traditional rivals are Leicester City. However, in recent years, Coventry City's fortunes have been far worse than Leicester's and it has been difficult to maintain intensity in the mutual animosity between supporters.
Sheffield United will welcome Coventry City to Bramall Lane for a mouthwatering clash at the top of the Championship on Friday night.
Coventry City can make it five wins on the spin when they welcome Championship leaders Leeds United to the Ricoh Arena on Wednesday (1945 GMT).
The 2024/25 Championship season is upon us, so it’s time to select our favourite outright tips, picking who we think will finish in the top six and which sides will be relegated.
Planet Sport has identified the contenders for the Championship Golden Boot award in 2024/25 including our betting tips.
Join Planet Sport as we answer the question, how many points does it take to achieve automatic promotion from the Championship to the Premier League?
Bristol City, Cardiff City, Derby County, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United, Swansea City and Watford feature in Friday’s Championship transfer gossip.
Leeds United, Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United and Sunderland all feature in Wednesday’s transfer gossip column.