Sky Blues delay kit sale at new superstore after fan frustration

The new superstore will not sell this season's home kit when it opens on Friday

Coventry City's home kit will not be available to purchase in a new superstore set to open on Friday, the club has said.

A delay to a "significant" warehouse delivery had led to a fulfilment partner not receiving stock to send out pre-orders to fans, the club said.

Coventry City Football Club (CCFC) has apologised over delays to deliveries of thousands of items bought weeks ago.

It was caused by reasons "outside of the club's control," it said.

The delay to the in-store availability of the new home shirt would be in place "until pre-orders have been fulfilled with everyone working tirelessly to do this," said the club in a statement.

"Deliveries have been received and we are working to catch up," it added.

Sky Blues fan Paul Smith, from Nuneaton, said he was "very frustrated" after spending about £200 on six shirts, seven weeks ago.

He said his grandchildren were "desperate to get their hands on the new kit".

"I went to the home game last week and there were a handful of people with the new shirts on so they'd obviously started to send them out," he said.

Other fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to vent their exasperation that the kit might be available in the store before pre-orders were delivered.

"Will I have the kit I paid for? Or will you have sold it to premium members in the new shop?" asked one.

CCFC said a delay in confirming the new sponsor meant the kit was not available as early as previous years.

"We were late entering this process, with the timeline of the sponsor confirmation plus the elongated 22/23 season, and this has been compounded by these issues which we will ensure will not happen again," executive chairman and owner Doug King said.

The new superstore would add to fans'matchday experience, said the club

"It is important to us to ensure that fans who pre-ordered get their shirts before fans are able to walk in and purchase, so we will delay in-store availability and communicate again when fans are able to buy in our Superstore and the West Orchards store," he added.

The new superstore, in the south-west corner of the Coventry Building Society Arena, will start general trading on Friday.