Sheffield United is stuck in limbo. Could US ownership help — or hurt?

My first game at Bramall Lane, last Saturday’s match against Derby County, put the football team’s heritage and

history front and centre. The “best anthem” for the game is played just before kickoff, and the stadium

announcer welcomes spectators to the “most historic sport stadium in the world.”

The majority of football teams have a beloved song, but few can match Sheffield United’s earthy, resonant tune.

Greasy Chip Butty, which is sung to John Denver’s Annie’s Song, has been imitated by numerous other clubs but

is still associated with the Blades. The lyrics of the song have been altered to compare United to a greasy chip

butty, a gallon of Magnet, a package of Woodbines, and a nice pinch of snuff.

Before the game, a fan tells me the hairs will stand up on the back of my neck when fans start singing it. He was

right.

Despite living less than half a mile from the ground, I’ve never been to watch Sheffield United. Why am I

coming now? Well, not for the first time in recent years, the club finds itself in the news about a potential

takeover. The current owner, Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (a member of the Saudi royal family,

commonly referred to as plain old Prince Abdullah), wants to sell. But it seems that the prospective new owners,

a US consortium of investors, are either getting cold feet over whether to buy or are being stopped from doing so

by the football authorities. The months-long impasse has left the club in a strange sort of limbo — unable to

make a clean break with the past, or plan for the future. What does the club’s third change in ownership in the

space of 11 years mean for a club so integral to its community? And could being touted around the boardrooms

of the United States rob it of the thing that makes it special?

As I make the short trip from Park Hill to Bramall Lane, it’s a warm 19 degrees; a last blast of summer before

the colder and darker autumn nights draw in. On my way down Shrewsbury Road I bump into Keith Proverbs

and Ian Walker, two best friends who have been coming to Bramall Lane for the best part of 60 years. They

admit to both being excited about the prospect of the takeover bringing more money into the club, but say they

have become disillusioned by the contradictory reports coming out via the media. “Another one came out this

morning saying it was going through again,” says Ian. “We’re totally in the dark.”

Paul Brewster informs me that he was born in Sheffield but left when he was only two years old when he is

standing outside the Fan Zone at the intersection of Shoreham Street and Cherry Street. But the family’s bond

with the club was so deep that Sheffield was the only choice when it came to where he would attend university.

Although he now resides in Cheshire, he has been closely monitoring the takeover’s developments, just like any

other fan.

However, he has little hope that the sale will proceed. He remarks, “I look at what people put on all the

Facebook groups, and it doesn’t look good.” “I don’t believe it will occur.”

I ask: Would fans be pleased if it did? “We are just in limbo, but I would be happy to have an owner who would

put a little money behind us,” he says. Prince Abdullah was allegedly “loaded,” therefore former owner Kevin

McCabe brought him in in 2013. But when this proved to be untrue, it caused a rift between the two and

resulted in McCabe losing authority over the club.

Sheffield United has already started to suffer from this lack of funding, as the team has been docked two points

for the current campaign after breaking EFL regulations by failing to pay other clubs after getting promoted the

previous season.

Brewster is glad the turmoil hasn’t so far affected manager Chris Wilder or the players, but he acknowledges

that it would be nice for the club to have some financial stability after over a decade of upheaval. “The money

just hasn’t been there,” he says. “On Facebook people call him the ‘Tinpot Prince’.”

I was a reporter for The Star five years ago, and I was present at the trial in London’s High Court when Prince

Abdullah and Kevin McCabe fought it out over club ownership. The entire encounter was, to be honest, strange.

It was really weird to watch a northern football team being fought over by people with outrageous wigs and

extremely sophisticated accents. And it became more bizarre.

Following the court announcement that Prince Abdullah had obtained a loan for the club from the Saudi Bin-

Laden family, fan-made parodies of the notorious scion Osama wearing a Sheffield United shirt briefly went

viral on Twitter. When the 20-day long trial was completed, Prince Abdullah was declared the winner. Many

were shocked by the result, but I wasn’t that surprised. To my untrained eye, I think the Prince had simply paid

for a better lawyer.

Five years later, the club is once more embroiled in an ownership dispute, however this time it is not being

handled in the High Court. There has been a lot of claim and counterclaim in the local media over the past few

weeks and months. According to Blades reporter Danny Hall in The Star, the takeover appears to be in severe

jeopardy. However, sports reporters Rob Staton and Andy Giddings on BBC Radio Sheffield appear more

certain that it will happen in the end. Fans are naturally becoming perplexed and irritated due to contradicting

reports.

The Sheffield United fanzine Dem Blades and newsletter The Pinch’s Sam Parry claims that they were so certain

the takeover would happen that they made a podcast about it, but it has never been released. According to his

current knowledge gleaned from secondary sources, an agreement had been reached with the EFL, but the

largest US consortium investor abruptly withdrew. He claims that everything was signed around the deadline

day. “I am uncertain if they have received an extension. Although the Prince is no longer popular with the new

owners, it has also been suggested that he might keep a stake. I believe it is very likely to have failed.

Parry concurs with Ian and Keith that the Prince has not communicated well. On the other hand, supporters

find it hard to understand exactly what they would be getting if the deal did go through because the US

consortium is so mysterious. Parry claims, “They don’t seem to have any kind of operational experience or

sporting track record to run a football club that could be back in the Premier League next season.” “Fans are

worried about the Prince’s future, but they are also worried about possible new owners.”

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