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Coventry City Football Club have held discussions with the local authority about three possible sites to build a new stadium, the Sky Blue Trust has revealed.

The group has revealed details of Coventry City Council meetings with land agents of the football club/ SISU to provide pre-application advice in respect on one site but, as a result of potential difficulties, has since suggested three alternatives that the club’s owners might want to consider.

It emerged last April that the football club’s owners were looking at the possibility of developing a site in the city, understood to be the former Woodlands Academy in Broad Lane, but that is fraught with infrastructure issues and complications.

City’s owners would have to overcome various hurdles to build a new football stadium on the site of a former school, not least the fact that the site has a legal covenant - which can guide or restrain how you build or alter a property - attached to it which means it could only be used for educational purposes.

(Image: AFLS+P)

In another significant development, the council has provided a team of completely independent senior planning and development officers to liaise with Sisu and their land agents , who have had “no involvement in the ongoing litigation.”

The City Council has previously been accused by the football club of standing in the way of any attempts to build a new stadium in the city.

The latest details have emerged after the fans group, the Sky Blue Trust, asked Coventry City Council a series of questions as part of a drive to contact all stakeholders, including Ricoh Arena owners Wasps and Coventry City FC owners, SISU, and urge them to get the football club back to Coventry.

The Trust are also due to meet with the English Football League next month.

Mark Robins' men are currently playing all their 'home' games at Birmingham City's St Andrew's stadium, some 22 miles from Coventry.

“Following the exile of our beloved Coventry City to Birmingham, The Sky Blue Trust has been forced to focus on one priority – bringing the club back home,” said a Trust spokesperson.

“To that end, we have requested meetings with key stakeholders to hear, on the fans’ behalf, the answers directly from those involved.

“Following our meeting with Wasps ’ Nick Eastwood, we were grateful that the rugby club made public its stance on relations with CCFC, insisting it wanted football to return to the Ricoh.

“Meanwhile, an equally frank conversation was held with Coventry City Council and, as a result, we are able to publish unedited questions and answers surrounding a potential return for CCFC and potential impediments.

“The Sky Blue Trust will be meeting senior representatives from the English Football League in December.

“We have renewed our requests for a meeting are Coventry City Football Club and its owners, Sisu so we can understand their position. We would hope they, like us and the EFL, would be committed to bringing the Sky Blues back home.

“Let nobody pretend that being in Birmingham is anything but incredibly damaging to the future of the Sky Blues.

“That is why we are leaving no stone unturned in our attempt to bring people together with the goal of City returning to Coventry. In the meantime, it is important that fans understand any progress or otherwise.”

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