Football is as much about the personnel behind the scenes as it is about the players on the pitch. It is a business for the owners with the stakeholders being the fans who invest their support every week.
“Welcome to a new era of Sheffield FC,” says club chairman and co-owner Richard Tims. “I’ve been planning the club’s expansion for a number of years. We own the brand ‘The Home of Football’, and we need a showcase facility that demonstrates that. We invented corner kicks, free kicks, the crossbar, the first floodlit game and the first trophy. We’re not particularly good at football at the moment but we do have a very rich history.”
Appointed as club chairman in 1999, Tims aims to grow the club, both through new facilities and social media, by reminding people that football started with just two men and a ball in the city of Sheffield.
“I got involved realising it’s the oldest football club in the world. With the Premier League taking off with loads of cash but none of it trickles down to the lower leagues. The oldest football club in the world played at Don Valley Stadium in front of one man and their dog and I needed to do something about it.”
Founded in 1857 and officially recognised by FIFA and the FA as the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC helped define the rules of the game we all know and love today. Unlike Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday that they share a city with, they have had very little success on the pitch, currently playing in the English eighth tier.
“Up until 21 years ago, before we moved here to Dronfield, Sheffield FC didn’t have its own ground, they played all over the city. I brought them here to create a bit of a base and a platform for them to grow as you can’t hot desk a football club and expect results, our aims and ambitions are bigger both on and off the field than non-league football.”
The Northern Premier League Division One East team Sheffield FC announced they would be moving back to Sheffield in 2021 in a new development plan to expand the club. The 5000-capacity stadium will be shared with Sheffield Eagles rugby league club and will have professional facilities as well as public facilities and a football museum to illustrate their history.
“I don’t like the phrase but a long time ago they used to say that footballs coming home, and I suppose it truly is. We are only about a kilometre outside the city now so does it really matter if Dronfield was Sheffield FC’s permanent home, not really no. But we want to grow and get bigger as a club, we can’t grow where we currently are. We want to be back in the city.
“We started in front of one man and their dog and now we’ve got 5000 members and a big social media following. Our community deserve a facility that can accommodate more than what we’ve got here. It’s time to grow. We don’t want to get left behind.”
As football fans will know success on the pitch will lead to promotion to a higher league in the footballing pyramid, however, clubs are also required to meet stadium standards set by the EFL. Although there is not a required capacity to be promoted, clubs must meet safety and operational standards to host matches.
“We’re not Real Madrid or Arsenal, this is about the community and football at a reasonable price, we are a community football club. As well as being for spectators we’ve got public facilities at an affordable price.”
“Most people would have given up and some people say becoming a bigger club will never happen but as you’re witnessing with the new stadium plans, it’s happening.”
Sheffield FC’s decline from the top of the footballing hierarchy came with the introduction of professionalism in 1885 with clubs Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Notts County beating them heavily. Professional clubs Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday have been able to grow their infrastructure and attract better players through paid contracts, leading to greater success overtime and attracting a larger local fan base in the city.
Despite remaining an amateur team, Sheffield FC have hosted major clubs Manchester United, Ajax and to celebrate their 150th anniversary in 2007, the club were defeated 5-2 in a friendly against Italian giants Inter Milan at Bramall Lane. Brazilian footballing legend Pele went onto the pitch before the game to greet the nearly 20,000 crowd there to witness the occasion. He said in the opening of the Sheffield FC display in the Legends of the Lane:
“Without Sheffield FC, there wouldn’t be a me.”
This event was orchestrated by Tims to help grow the club and gain recognition globally. He says, “Our audience is the 3.5 billion fans that love the beautiful game.”
Under the Richard Tims era, Sheffield FC has launched a Women’s, a Disability and an Esports team. And although they are unlikely to lift the Premier League trophy in the near future, Tims has steered the pioneers of football one step closer to being the home of football once again. With a global growing brand and a new stadium planned for 2026, things are looking up for the world’s first football club.
For more information about Sheffield FC and their expansion, visit their club website.
Richard Tims is the club chairman and co-owner
of Sheffield FC – the world’s first professional football club
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