The world’s first football team, the seventh-tier Sheffield FC, are planning to build a new stadium in Sheffield.
Plans have been submitted for a purpose-built facility, to be shared between Sheffield FC and Sheffield Eagles Rugby Club.
The new stadium, to be built at a site in Meadowhead, will feature professional football and rugby league facilities as well as a cricket pavilion, a football museum and an indoor community sports hall.
Richard Tims, who has been chairman of Sheffield FC for 24 years, said: “This development will not be just another shared rugby and football ground. It will be a new destination for Sheffield Eagles and ‘The World’s First Football Club’ Sheffield FC.”
The team, who currently play at a site in Dronfield and have never had a permanent home in their 165-year history, will be moving to a purpose-built 5,000-seat stadium.
Mr Tims said: “[When I became chairman] We played in a rented stadium at Don Valley in front of a man and his dog, and I decided that the world’s first football club should be better looked after than it had been in the past, so I got involved. And then as a marketing person realised there’s a brand here called the world’s first football club- and there’s only one.”
The profile of Sheffield FC has grown significantly since Mr Tims became chairman, with the stadium plans only the latest in a series of steps forward for the club.
In 2004 Sheffield FC became one of only two clubs to be awarded the FIFA Order of Merit and in 2007 the club played a commemorative match against Inter Milan at Bramall Lane.