Doug King confirms Coventry City on the cusp of £122m windfall | OneFootball

Coventry City are closing in on automatic promotion to the Premier League

Coventry City are on the cusp of promotion back to the Premier League after a 25-year absence from the division.

The Sky Blues narrowly missed out on a return to the top flight in both 2025 and 2023, losing in the play-offs to Sunderland in the semi-finals and Luton Town in the final.

Frank Lampard’s side are now leading the way at the top of the Championship table, and have an 11-point gap on third-place Ipswich Town.

Middlesbrough are in second and are nine points adrift of top spot, and have played a game more than the Tractor Boys.

Four wins and a draw from their final seven fixtures will be enough for the club to seal promotion officially.

But planning for the summer will already be underway, with Coventry likely looking at both Leeds United and Sunderland for inspiration for how to survive in the top flight longer-term.

Doug King opens up on Coventry City’s promotion windfall

Owner Doug King has clarified how much Coventry will earn in just broadcast revenue from promotion to the Premier League amid claims a place in the division could be worth as much as £200 million to the club.

He has also compared Sunderland and Leeds’ recruitment strategies, suggesting that the Sky Blues will need to find a similar solution that works for them, as they target long-term survival in the league.

“I think it’s £122million [in broadcast revenue],” said King, via Coventry Live.

“Not that I’ve looked!

“I think that’s our challenge [to stay up], and senior relevant people will chew that over as to what we should do [with recruitment].

“Leeds went up as champions last season and did it a different way.

“They did some changes but they still have recognisable players who were in the Championship who play for Leeds today.

“Sunderland finished third (fourth) last year after having quite a big fall off at the end of the season into the play-offs.

“I think they got 75/76 points, something like that, and obviously they felt that they had to do a bit more, widespread creation of a football team.

“So everybody’s got to look at their situation and only they will know their players and what they’re trying to achieve, and we’ll do a similar thing.”

Leeds earned 100 points en route to the Championship title last year, and are now just a few points clear of the relegation zone with only seven games remaining.

Meanwhile, Sunderland are 11th and are effectively safe from relegation under Régis Le Bris, who oversaw their promotion triumph over Coventry last year.

Lampard will be hoping that his side can get over the line for automatic promotion this year, but his long-term sights will be on replicating Sunderland and Leeds’ form in the Premier League.

Coventry are first in the Championship table, with just seven games remaining, and they are nine points clear of second place Middlesbrough.

A run of seven wins from their last eight games prior to the March international break put the club in a strong position to return to the top flight for the first time since 2001.

Next up for the Sky Blues is a home clash against play-off contender Derby County on 3 April in an 8pm kick-off.

Promotion will have a huge financial impact on Coventry

Promotion is worth so much to clubs in the Championship that it could be quite transformative.

But King will have to weigh up how much to spend in the summer, as investing the big windfall of Premier League TV money might not be worth it if they end up going down anyway.

Financial stability will be key for the club long-term, so if they can stay up with a balance of current and new players then that would be an amazing achievement.

Sunderland and Leeds have both shown a way to compete in the Premier League, but replicating that won’t be an easy task.