Qatar forms new partnership with world’s first football club

Sheffield FC, the world’s first football club, has formed a new partnership with Qatar which will see significant support given to grassroots and women’s football.

As part of the partnership, Qatar will support Sheffield FC’s Foundation in the wake of their ladies first team’s success in gaining promotion to the FA Women’s Super League Two.

This announcement follows the Clublaunching a crowdfunding campaign to raise £2m, which has already attracted worldwide interest, to move back to its original home at Olive Grove Sports Ground in Sheffield.

The project is aiming for £2m to fund the development of the site, as well as the build of a ‘Home of Football’ museum.

Hassan Al-Thawadi, the chief of Qatar 2022 (the country where the 2022 World Cup will be held) and former University of Sheffield law graduate, has expressed his delight at backing the world’s first football club.

Al-Thawadi said: “The city of Sheffield holds so many wonderful memories for me as a student of Law at the University. It is not difficult for me to speak fondly of this vibrant and important city.

“I was particularly taken by the phenomenal achievement of the Sheffield Ladies First Team in winning promotion to the FA Super League and we wanted to show our commitment to the Club by helping support their promotion. We look forward to inviting the First XI out to Doha to train with the women and schoolgirls and help encourage many others to take up the game.”

Sheffield FC is recognised officially as the oldest football club in the world, founded in 1857, six years before the formation of The FA.

The Club was based at Olive Grove in Sheffield in 1857, where Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, members of a Sheffield cricket club that organised informal kick-abouts without any official rules, first wrote a commonly accepted set of rules.

The so called “Sheffield Rules” played a key role in the formation of the FA and involved in a host of innovations such as the first crossbar, the first corner kick, the first free kick, the first throw-in and the first floodlit match, all at Olive Grove, and in 2004 FIFA awarded Sheffield FC its highest honour – the FIFA Order of Merit – in recognition of its place in history as the world’s first club.

The Club, which currently plays home games in Dronfield, in Derbyshire, wants to relocate to back to Olive Grove, a ground it vacated almost 150 years ago.

Even though the men’s team plays in the eighth tier of English football, Sheffield FC’s women’s first team are becoming one of the best teams in the country. In May this year they beat Portsmouth in the Women’s FA Premier League play off and were promoted to the FA Women’s Super League Two.

However, the Club needs a significant cash injection to prove to FA officials that they have the capital to function at that level.

Hassan Al-Thawadi was made aware of the project by Sheffield FC’s Chairman, Richard Tims.

Richard said: “As the World’s First football club, every single club in the world was born from the original birthplace of modern football at our ground at Olive Grove in Sheffield. We are every club’s great, great grandfather.

“I have been traveling around the world to gain support from leaders in football and the response has been tremendous. However it is translating that vocal support for our project into tangible resources that has been slow to filter through. We are therefore delighted that Qatar has shown its commitment and pledged to become a founder of the Foundation and to also support our women’s first team’s application into the FA Super League.

“Mr Al Thawadi is already an honorary Yorkshireman by virtue of the fact he lived here whilst a student. He liked the synergy between the world’s first football club and the fact that people see Qatar as the new boys on the block of world football. When we open our museum on the site of the original home of football at Olive Grove, we will be able to share the history of the beautiful game with school children across the world, from where it all started to where it is now with a nod to the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East.

“We welcome Mr Al Thawadi onto the Board and look forward to utilising his influential contacts across football. We hope he and our other partners are able to bring together people that care passionately about protecting the history and legacy of the game and want to encourage grassroots development.”

Hassan Al Thawadi said: “I am very happy to announce our support of the oldest football club in the world as it relocates back to its original ground, Olive Grove, in the heart of Sheffield, the birthplace of the modern game. I have been so impressed by the vision of the Chairman and staff at the Club to develop such an exciting project with the aim of promoting sporting solidarity and encouraging grassroots activities within communities worldwide. Over the past few years since the Chairman first contacted us we have been working together to look for suitable ways in which we could lend our support.

“I hope that when the new ground and museum at Olive Grove is developed and schoolchildren from across the world visit and stand on the site where the beautiful game was created, they will be able to comprehend just how far the game travelled to every corner of the globe which resulted in the first Middle Eastern World Cup.”

Mr Al Thawadi joins Florentino Perez, President of Real Madrid as an Honourary Board Member, and there will also be a spot for the newly elected FIFA President as the honourary Chairman of the Foundation.

Bundesliga club, Borussia Dortmund, has an established partnership with Sheffield FC and will be launching a crowdfunding project for its project later this year.

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