Firm pledging 'billions' wants to buy oldest club

A venture capital firm claims it has had two bids to buy the world's oldest football club, Sheffield FC, rejected.

Yorkshire AI Labs said it wanted to bring a "once in a generation" investment worth "hundreds of billions" into Sheffield, including supporting plans for a new 5,000-seater stadium and 'Home of Football' museum.

The company said it had aspirations for Sheffield FC, whose men's side currently play in the ninth tier of English football, to climb the league pyramid in a story that "could be bigger" than Wrexham's rise to the Championship under Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

The BBC has contacted Sheffield FC, who were founded in 1857, for comment.

Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield, David Richards MBE, managing partner at Yorkshire AI Labs, said the firm wanted to invest in the "heritage" the club offered.

He said: "Let's face it, in our lifetime we've never celebrated Sheffield being the inventor of the game that's now the world's most popular sport. We invented the corner kick, the goal kick, offside.

"The rules of the game were invented here, and the fact that it's not celebrated in the way I think it should be, and many of us think it should be, is really something that needs to be corrected."

Richards said the company had assets that "run into the hundreds of billions" which would "not only invest in a museum and stadium" but would also "create jobs" and be a "once in a generation investment into our region".

He added: "This I think is going to be one of the great stories in world sport. I'm sure that when the Hollywood guys went into Wrexham, most people scratched their heads and wondered what on earth was going on. I think Sheffield FC could be bigger."

Sheffield FC have played their games outside of their home city in Dronfield, in North East Derbyshire, since 2001.

The club has made multiple attempts to return to Sheffield over the last two decades, with the latest plans unveiled in November 2023 as a joint venture with Sheffield Eagles Rugby League Club.

This included a 5,000-seater stadium, cricket pavilion, football museum and an indoor community sports hall based at the former Sheffield Transport Sports Club at Meadowhead, just 1.4 miles (2.2km) away from Sheffield FC's current ground.

Sheffield City Council said they were still assessing the planning application for the Meadowhead site, with no date set for a decision to be made, over two years after the plans were announced.

Richards said the discussions with the club's current owners over a takeover had "stalled".

He added: "If it's not us then someone needs to do this. I don't think it's going to come from the public purse, so it's got to be private investment, and somebody, or a group, that are very interested in the heritage and protecting that brand."

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