EFL vote on Coventry’s expulsion over lack of a ground postponed until May

The vote by EFL clubs on whether to expel Coventry has been postponed to 29 May after the club gave assurances it is in talks over a deal to continue playing at the Ricoh Arena next season.

The vote of all 72 clubs was scheduled to take place on Thursday and had been called because Coventry did not have an arrangement for a home ground beyond May, while its owner, the London-based hedge fund Sisu, pursued legal actions relating to the Ricoh, which it has lost. The club said in a statement it has reached an outline agreement “to groundshare at an alternative venue” that it did not identify.

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The groundshare option has a limited period, so an extension “will need to be concluded very quickly” with Wasps, the Premiership rugby club which plays at the Ricoh Arena and owns the lease on the stadium.

Wasps has stated for months it is not prepared to discuss an extension to Coventry’s licence to play at the Ricoh while Sisu continues to pursue litigation. Sisu was refused leave to appeal, after defeat in its most recent court case, by the supreme court last week.

Coventry declined to say where it had agreed a groundshare away from the Ricoh, citing confidentiality agreements.

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As the deadline approached for Sisu to agree a home for next season or risk expulsion from the league, several clubs are believed to have been approached for a groundshare, including Coventry rugby club, whose Butts Park ground has a capacity of only 4,000, Birmingham and Burton Albion.

EFL rules state a move by a club should “be appropriate” to the place with which a club is “traditionally associated” – defined by agreement with Coventry as within five miles of the city centre. There is no prohibition on a club moving out of that locality, but the EFL is reluctant to sanction such moves following outcries over Wimbledon’s move to Milton Keynes in 2002, and Sisu’s move of Coventry to Northampton in 2013, both of which were boycotted by supporters.

Wasps confirmed it had begun “initial discussions with Coventry regarding an extension to the football club’s license agreement to play at the Ricoh Arena”.