Leicester will renew their rivalry with Coventry City this season after being relegated from the Premier League.

The Foxes and the Sky Blues will face off against each other on the opening day of the new Championship season on Sunday, August 6, with it being the team’s first league meeting in more than a decade.

Several builders inflicted a supposed curse back in 2005 as Coventry’s then-named Ricoh Arena was being constructed. Builders, and lifelong Leicester fans, Steve Grieves and David Hobbs claimed to be among a group to have buried a replica Foxes shirt in the foundations of the stadium - a move they hoped would curse their rivals forever more.

Speaking at the time, Steve, who was from Glenfield, told the Leicester Mercury: “We were working on the site with these Coventry fans and wondered how we could get one over on them. We reckon the shirt will be a curse and help Leicester win every time they play there.”

However, it was a curse that didn’t immediately pay off. The team’s first meeting at the newly-opened Ricoh came in 2006 and saw the sides draw 1-1. A goalless draw in their next encounter then followed before the Foxes lost 2-0 at Coventry in 2008, putting hopes of a curse on Coventry in doubt.

Since then, things have changed and Leicester have been unbeaten at Coventry’s ground, recording two wins and two draws - the most recent a 1-0 victory in 2011.

But while results may not have been cursed for Coventry on the pitch against Leicester, they had many off-field issues at the Ricoh. In 2012, the club fell into administration and was docked 10 points, while it also faced a rent issue at the Ricoh and was forced to play home matches in Northampton.

The club returned to the Ricoh in 2014 and stayed there for five years until a deal for their residency expired. That left them to ground-share home games with Birmingham City for two years before they finally returned home in 2021 to the stadium which is now called the CBS Arena.

In all that time, Leicester had the most incredible few years, winning the Premier League under Claudio Ranieri and then the FA Cup under Brendan Rodgers, so it could be seen that the curse worked on multiple levels for the builders. Coventry have staged quite the comeback in recent times though, with the club’s stock rising significantly under the management of Mark Robins.

The club narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League, losing the play-off final to Luton Town. They will now be aiming to get over the automatic promotion line this time.

The teams do not meet at the CBS Arena until January.