Coventry City relegated to League Two after fans throw plastic pigs on pitch

The long, sorry decline of Coventry City continues.

On Friday, 30 years since Coventry's conquest of the FA Cup, the Sky Blues were relegated to League Two, as a 1-1 draw versus Charlton Athletic at the Ricoh Arena left them 10 points off safety in League One with only nine points to play for.

Before kick-off, supporters of Coventry and Charlton united outside the Ricoh Arena with banners and signs, demonstrating against the clubs' owners. The protests continued inside the ground, as disgruntled fans threw plastic pigs on the pitch, forcing the referee, Darren Handley, to delay the start of the match as ball boys removed the synthetic hogs.

Once the game kicked off, it was quickly suspended as supporters continued to throw plastic pigs.

It was a repeat of the scenes from October, when supporters of Coventry and Charlton held a collective march before a match at The Valley in protest at the clubs' owners, and suspended the game by throwing plastic pigs on the pitch.

Coventry is the fifth club in the Premier League era to fall from the top flight of English football to the fourth tier, joining the likes of Swindon Town, Bradford City, Portsmouth, and Blackpool.

Coventry's supporters are directing their anger at Sisu Capital, the hedge fund that bought the Sky Blues in 2007 when the club was in the Championship and that is hiding behind a subsidiary called Otium Entertainment.

As the Guardian's Paul MacInnes wrote, Sisu Capital is blamed for a rent strike at the Ricoh Arena, the controversial decision to temporarily move Coventry to a county town roughly one hour away, a series of legal actions against the Sky Blues, and the inclusion of the club's training ground - its only substantial asset - in a regional plan as a potential site for 75 houses.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Coventry's deal at the Ricoh Arena expires at the end of the 2017-18 season and there are questions about the continued existence of the Sky Blues' academy. Mark Robins is the club's fourth manager this season after Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus, and Russell Slade.

In September, the Coventry Telegraph called on Sisu Capital to put Coventry up for sale, pointing to how "attendances, revenues, and league positions have all declined" during the hedge fund's tenure. The petition boasts over 20,000 signatures. The Guardian's Daniel Taylor put it best, writing that it feels like the Sky Blues "have been dragged through a hedge fund backwards and the scary thing is it might get even worse."