Coventry City issued eviction notice

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Coventry City issued eviction notice

Coventry City has been issued with an eviction notice by the new owners of the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley's Frasers Group took over the stadium last month after buying its three former operating companies.

They say the championship club has no continuing right to use the ground.

Club officials were told on Friday they must return keys and access cards and an FA Youth Cup game on Saturday was switched to Leamington Town FC.

Frasers do not believe that they are bound by the previous licence agreement with the former owners of the stadium, Wasps Rugby Club, who went into administration on October 18th.

Coventry are away to Reading when their Championship campaign resumes on Saturday and their next home match is against Swansea on 17 December.

Frasers have said they will be given a reasonable amount of time to remove goods and property from the stadium.

The Sky Blues moved to Ricoh Arena from their former Highfield Road home in 2005.

A dispute with their landlords saw them decamp to Northampton Town's Sixfields ground for home games in 2013 -- 14.

Wasps bought Coventry City Council's 50% stake in the stadium in October 2014 and acquired the remaining shareholding from the Alan Edward Higgs Charity in October 2014, with Sky Blues returning as tenants.

In 2019, Coventry moved to Birmingham City's St Andrew's stadium due to rent issues, spending two seasons there and winning promotion from League One in the process.

They returned home for the start of the 2021 -- 22 season, but there were further problems at the beginning of the current campaign because of the state of the pitch after it was used for rugby sevens matches during the Commonwealth Games.

After the demise of Wasps, the operating companies of CBS Arena, Arena Coventry Ltd ACL Arena Coventry 2006 Ltd and IEC Experience Ltd went into administration, enabling Frasers Group to buy them for 17 m.

A judge rejected a 25 m bid for the stadium from businessman Doug King, saying it had come too late, but he is going ahead with a plan to buy an 85% controlling stake in the club from current owners Sisu, subject to approval by the English Football League.

The sale is not straightforward, with rival bidder William Storey challenging the deal, who says the deal breaches an exclusivity agreement he had with Sisu, although they insist his claim is untrue and unhelpful.