Friday night’s live televised FA Cup tie at the Emirates sees Arsenal host crisis torn Coventry City, currently playing their ‘home’ games not in Coventry but 35 miles away in Northampton, and the fixture will be used by Sky Blues fans to demand answers to questions about their Club.
Supporters’ group ‘Keep Cov in Cov’ Coordinator, Michael Orton, explained: “the decision to move Coventry City to Northampton’s sixfields ground is clearly a disaster. Attendances at Coventry’s games at sixfields are at record lows, a generation of new supporters is being lost and the situation is unsustainable”. The decision to relocate Coventry to Northampton was taken by the Club’s owners, the sisu hedge fund, who say the rent on Coventry’s home - the Ricoh Arena - is unaffordable so they are going to build a new stadium ‘in the Coventry area’. The Football League have agreed that Coventry can stay in Northampton for 3-5 years.
Coventry’s allocation of over 5,000 tickets for the Emirates was snapped up instantly. While the vast majority of Coventry fans are boycotting games played in Northampton, with season ticket sales down by a reported 90 per cent, Sky Blues supporters are attending away games in huge numbers to show they support their team but not the Club’s owners. For example, in November, 7,000 City fans travelled to a league game at MKDons. This Friday’s trip to Arsenal will be a reminder of happier days for the Sky Blues when, during over 30 years in the top flight, trips to north London were an annual event. But supporters will also use Friday’s game to highlight their plight.
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On 35 minutes fans will hold up signs saying ‘WHY?’, with the question being 'Why has the mess we're in been allowed to happen, and why aren't we playing in Coventry where we belong?' The choice of 35 minutes reflects the fact Coventry’s ‘home’ games are played 35 miles away in Northampton. At the same time fans will sing: ‘I wanna go home, I wanna go home, Back to the Ricoh, the Ricoh’s our home’.
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On 61 minutes fans will hold up signs saying ‘WHEN?’, with the question being 'when will this madness end and we return to our home?' 61 minutes was chosen because Jimmy Hill became Coventry manager in 1961 and started the ‘Sky Blue Revolution’ taking the Club from the old third division to the top flight. Fans will sing Coventry’s unique anthem, the Sky Blue song, which Jimmy Hill wrote and contains the lines 'Let's all sing together' and ‘We’ll fight till the game is won’. That is what fans believe they need to do to get the Club back to Coventry.