Coventry City Football Club Ltd has gone into liquidation.
The Sky Blues face a minimum deduction of 15 points, rather than extinction.
The 1987 FA Cup winners begin their 2013-14 League One campaign at Crawley Town on Saturday, a fixture which is still expected to go ahead.
Coventry fans protest outside the offices of SISU Capital in Red Place
A Company Voluntary Agreement was rejected at a creditors' meeting in London on Friday.
That included an offer to the club to return to the Ricoh Arena on a greatly reduced rent with a 10-year lease, but the changes were not accepted by Appleton, resulting in ACL voting against allowing them to come out of administration.
Coventry agreed to play their home games at the Northampton's Sixfields Stadium last month, with a four-year plan to return to a new stadium in the city.
The move was not well received by fans, with just over 200 of them reportedly buying season tickets.
CCFC Ltd, one of the companies which make up the club, went into administration in March.
Coventry said they will "hold urgent meetings with the Football League this afternoon to go through the next steps".