Coventry chaos: Why are the ex-Premier League side leaving their 32,000 stadium to move in at Northampton's 7,500 home that is a whopping 34 miles away?

The Football League will ratify Coventry City's ground-sharing agreement with Northampton Town in the next 24 hours.

The ruling body is expected to give the go-ahead to the Sky Blues' decision to move from the Ricoh Arena to Sixfields following weeks of negotiations.

The breakdown between the club's owners, hedge fund SISU, and Arena Coventry Limited - the landlords at the Ricoh Arena - now appears irretrievable and a move to share with the League Two outfit is inevitable.

And, once the three-year deal is announced, the Sky Blues will start next season by playing their home matches 34 miles away from England's ninth largest city.

Trek: Coventry fans will have to travel 34 miles to watch their team at Northampton's ground

Expensive: Coventry have to move away from the Ricoh next season

Different: Northamptons' Sixfields has a capacity 25,000 smaller than Coventry's current ground

The Cobblers have remained non-committal on stories at present but that it is merely window-dressing as they are awaiting official confirmation from the League that the move will be allowed.

Coventry City's de facto chief executive Tim Fisher has been speaking to both Northampton and the Football League ever since the club was bought out of administration recently by SISU-backed Otium Entertainment Limited.

He was in discussions with Walsall but there were doubts that the pitch at the Banks's Stadium would be able to withstand two teams playing regularly upon it and so looked south for an alternative.

The move is the latest twist in a row that can only be described as bitter between two warring factions, brought to a head by the football club's decision last year to withhold the £1m-a-year rent on the Ricoh Arena.

Anger: The move has caused plenty of controversy among Coventry fans

Problem: The stadium issue is an unwanted concern for Coventry boss Steven Pressley (below) That led to yet more wrangling between the parties with SISU instigating a judicial review in the High Court against Coventry City Council, part-owners of ACL, for trying to 'wrest control' and 'economically damage' them. With the two at loggerheads over the rent, the club was placed into administration, Coventry suffering a ten-point deduction last season that effectively ruined any chances of the League One play-offs. Administrator Paul Appleton was left with little choice but to award control of the club back to SISU through Otium and now the new owners are pressing ahead with plans to build a new stadium complex on three brownfield sites outside of the jurisdiction of Coventry City Council. However, Appleton still has to have the Creditors' Voluntary Agreement accepted by all parties and it now remains to be seen whether ACL will contest this. Ricoh Arena

Opened: 2005

Capacity: 32,609

Construction Cost: £113million

Coventry average attendance 2012-2013: 10,973 SIxfields Opened: 1994

Capacity: 7,653

Construction Cost: £6million

Northampton average attendance 2012-2013: 4,826

In the meantime, the news was greeted with obvious dismay in Coventry.

John Sillett, manager of the 1987 FA Cup-winning side, and a man who still attended matches at the Ricoh Arena, said this morning that he watched a re-run of the 3-2 victory over Spurs when news broke last night and has urged the two parties to get round a table to thrash out their differences.

Unfortunately, with legal agreements no doubt in place between the two football clubs and a decision imminent from the Football League, it appears that Coventry's fans have to resign themselves to seeing their football for the next three years in Northampton while their new stadium is being built.

Former Coventry striker Darren Huckerby tweeted: 'Can you play your home games 35 miles away from home? Coventry City will slowly be destroyed, owners should hang their heads in shame.'

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Nuneaton, Marcus Jones, called on the House of Commons to oppose Coventry City moving to Northampton.

And The Sky Blue Trust are holding a protest outside Sixfields at 5.30pm today to make their objections clear.

Trust spokesman Moz Baker explained: 'We know supporters overwhelmingly oppose any move out of Coventry and the Trust's view is simple: it is unthinkable that CCFC play home games outside the city in which we were founded and is our home.

'Large numbers of fans will not attend 'home' games that are not played at the Ricoh Arena. A move away from Coventry will have a hugely detrimental effect on CCFC and while the owners suggest the move will be 'temporary' and a 'new' ground will be built, there is no evidence of a planning application for a new stadium being submitted never mind permission being obtained.'



GROUND SHARE CREATES FIXTURE NIGHTMARE

A groundshare between Northampton and Coventry would throw up problems almost straight away when the season starts. The clubs are both scheduled to play their first home matches on August 10 - Coventry against Bristol City and Northampton against Newport County - meaning that Coventry's match would likely be rearranged to midweek. This could become a familiar theme, with 11 fixture clashes throughout the season. There's likely to be a significant decrease in Coventry's crowds too, which were already down by 27 per cent last season on the one before. However, their Ricoh average of 10,973 is still over 3,000 more than Sixfield's capacity. When the ground's away allocation of 1,250 is factored in, it could mean Coventry fans scrambling for just over 6,000 tickets for each home game.

COVENTRY CITY FIRST SIX HOME MATCHES August 10 - Bristol City August 24 - Preston North End September 7 - Colchester United September 14 - Gillingham September 28 - Brentford October 12 - Sheffield United NORTHAMPTON FIRST SIX HOME MATCHES August 10 - Newport County August 24 - Torquay United September 7 - Scunthorpe United September 14 - Exeter City September 28 - Morecambe October 19 - Dagenham and Redbridge



Greatest moment: This week's events make Coventry's famous triumph over Tottenham in the 1987 FA Cup final seem an age ago. Here, Keith Houchen scores a diving header to make it 2-2 in the 63rd minute

What a moment! Houchen celebrates his famous Cup final goal

Name on the trophy: Manager John Sillett celebrates with the FA Cup



