They step off the train into a flush of cold air under the South Stand. It is telling that the stadium is out here, tucked by the M6 and a big Tesco on the outskirts of town. Highfield Road was Coventry\u2019s home for 106 years, and it sat among terraced houses like a stitch in the fabric of the city. By contrast, the Ricoh Arena, as it was known, was on the periphery, standing as a monument to Coventry\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n
Yet slowly, gradually, this stadium has become home. They\u2019ve made new memories, and now the Premier League is in sight, after 25 years away. On that emotional day in 2001 when relegation was confirmed, one fan held up a famous sign which read: \u201cWe\u2019ll be back.\u201d It has taken a quarter of a century, a journey that almost destroyed the club, but Coventry are nearly at their destination.<\/p>\n
![\"Coventry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2265986137.jpg\")
Coventry supporters walk to the CBS Arena, the ground that for years encapsulated their uneasy relationship with the club (Getty)<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The Ricoh Arena was meant to open in 2001 with 45,000 seats and a retractable roof, ready to host 2006 World Cup games and secure Coventry\u2019s future as a Premier League club. It finally opened in 2005 with 32,500 seats, no roof, no World Cup and debts which brought the club to its knees.<\/p>\n
Coventry sold everything: star players, Highfield Road, even their 50 per cent share in the Ricoh, to pay for the cost of building it. On the brink of extermination in 2007, the club were bought by Sisu, a Mayfair-based hedge fund which specialised in \u201cdistressed debt\u201d.<\/p>\n
What followed over the next 16 years was a masterclass in mismanagement which led to administration, docked points, two relegations, fan boycotts, angry pitch invasions and the team exiled from their own city, twice. Most EFL clubs have endured some turmoil, but few have been through quite as much as Coventry.<\/p>\n
What was the lowest point of Sisu\u2019s disastrous reign? Perhaps it was 2012, when Sisu\u2019s attempts to play hardball with the council over rent lost Coventry their home. It led to the club groundsharing with Northampton Town at Sixfields, a stadium 30 miles down the M1, and attendances plummeted to less than 2,000. <\/p>\n
![\"Coventry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-176286881.jpeg\")
Coventry fans protest before a ‘home’ match at Sixfields Stadium, Northampton, while down in League One in 2013 (Getty)<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was when Wasps Rugby Club bought the Ricoh in 2014. One Coventry staff member recalls arriving at the ground each matchday to find Wasps branding plastered all over the stadium, and so began the painstaking process of replacing each piece. Even then, Coventry fans would pull down seats and find the Wasps logo emblazoned on them.<\/p>\n
By then, Sisu had stripped back budgets and left the club in a state of decline. There had been little effort to understand that this was a century-old institution, a cultural artefact to be preserved, not just a business to be squeezed dry. The squad was threadbare, and in 2017 Coventry were relegated to League Two. <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Every time Coventry play, a flag goes up in Oslo. <\/p>\n
Jorg Nannestad fell in love with English football watching on Norwegian TV in the 1970s. When he was eight, his mum went to a store selling Admiral sportswear and bought him a Coventry shirt, \u201cbecause she liked the colour\u201d, and he was hooked.<\/p>\n
Jorg has seen them play everywhere from Highfield Road to Wembley (\u201cI\u2019ve been to Leyton Orient away, Bristol City, Plymouth\u2026\u201d), but when he\u2019s in Oslo, he pulls on the shirt and sends a sky-blue flag up the pole that hangs over his front porch, much to the bemusement of his neighbours. <\/p>\n
He is president of Coventry\u2019s Scandinavian Supporters Club, whose 300-strong membership includes members from Denmark, the Arctic Circle, and everywhere in between. It is perhaps a reminder of English football\u2019s pull, and of Coventry\u2019s significant place in the story.<\/p>\n
Jorg caught the end of Jimmy Hill\u2019s swashbuckling 1960s side. He watched the 1987 cup final on TV and enjoyed the 1990s era of Peter Ndlovu, Mustapha Hadji and Darren Huckerby. But he gravely describes what followed as \u201cthe black years\u201d. <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
This is the main thing Mark Robins did … people decided they could fall in love with the club again<\/p>\n
Simon Lillibury, That Cov Pod<\/p>\n
In 2017, two crucial things happened. The first was the return of Mark Robins as manager, which would have a transformative effect over the next seven years. \u201cHe saved our football club,\u201d says James Darlaston of That Cov Pod<\/a>. \u201cWe were probably going to go either extinct or down to the National League in front of a handful of fans if Robins hadn\u2019t come in and done what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n The second was that season\u2019s final of the EFL Trophy, which was then called the Checkatrade Trophy. Wembley is normally half empty for the occasion, but on that April day Coventry fans descended on the capital to see Robins\u2019 team beat Oxford United<\/a>. They made up most of the 74,434 attendance, the highest for an EFL Trophy final since the 1980s. <\/p>\n Coventry still headed down to League Two that summer, but the Checkatrade final won new fans and shone a light in the darkness.<\/p>\n Besides, League Two had its perks. \u201cAll these little grounds, like Newport, Forest Green Rovers,\u201d says James. \u201cYou could rock up on the day, you didn\u2019t have to worry about getting a ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI loved it,\u201d says That Cov Pod host Simon Lillibury. \u201cI lived in Manchester and it was very much: \u2018I\u2019m a Coventry fan \u2013 yeah, we\u2019re s***, who cares? It\u2019s the team I support and I\u2019m going to Accrington next week\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Stadium disputes forced another groundshare<\/a> at St Andrew\u2019s in Birmingham. But on the field, Robins and his assistant Adi Viveash led a steady climb back to League One in 2018 and then the Championship in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a whole generation of kids growing up who just fell out of love with the football club, or didn\u2019t ever support the football club,\u201d says Simon. \u201cYou’d see people walk around the city in United, Arsenal, Liverpool shirts. And this is the main thing Mark Robins did: it was just Cov shirts absolutely everywhere. People decided they could fall in love with the club again.\u201d<\/p>\n There was no magic pill, no billionaire benefactor. Instead, Coventry\u2019s rise was built step by step, piece by piece. In the Championship, the club\u2019s head of recruitment, Chris Badlan, oversaw smart signings from small European markets, such as Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer, who later departed for profit. <\/p>\n Sisu took a back seat and finally sold up in 2023, to local businessman Doug King. <\/p>\n King\u2019s decision to sack Robins and appoint Frank Lampard<\/a> was a gamble, but he has taken the team to the brink of the Premier League, even if the drab 0-0 draw with Wednesday delayed the achievement. On his first day in charge, Lampard called everyone to the gym \u2013 players, staff, chefs, cleaners \u2013 and told them to start believing the sky is the limit for Coventry City. <\/p>\n![\"Guided](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2149533005.jpeg\")
Guided at first by Mark Robins, trips to Wembley and a journey through the divisions helped Coventry fans learn to love the club again (The FA via Getty)<\/p>\n