FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Championship - Coventry City v Preston North End - Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry, Britain - August 31, 2022 General view of the stadium during the match after a new pitch was laid Action Images/Andrew Couldridge EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details./File Photo
(Reuters) - Coventry City accepted a suspended five points deduction on Thursday after three of their Championship (second-tier) home games had to be postponed earlier this season because of the unplayable condition of their pitch.
Coventry's fixtures against Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town at the Coventry Building Society Arena were postponed after the pitch was deemed unsafe.
The stadium had been used for rugby sevens matches during this year's Commonwealth Games. Coventry were allowed to resume playing on the pitch after rugby side Wasps -- then landlords of the ground -- carried out repair work.
Wasps have since gone into administration and the ground is now owned by Frasers Group.
Coventry accepted the sanction from the English Football League (EFL) board with the five points deduction suspended for the rest of the 2022-23 season and the 2023-24 campaign.
The club will also pay the EFL 6,000 pounds ($7,218) towards the costs of the investigation and compensation due to Huddersfield, Wigan and Rotherham.
($1 = 0.8312 pounds)
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
