Rumours of a Qatari-backed £250 million bid for the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC, have begun to circulate, with a Yorkshire tech scene veteran at the centre of them in Dave Richards MBE.
Richards is fronting the offer for Sheffield FC alongside Yorkshire AI Labs, the Sheffield venture capital firm which he is a founding member and managing director of.
If the proposed deal goes ahead, it would instantly be one of the most surreal and ambitious football projects in the country – a ninth-tier club with the financial backing to become one of the richest teams on the planet.
While the idea of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund being linked to a tiny non-league side might sound like something pulled from Football Manager, the person at the heart of it has spent decades operating at the intersection of technology, scale and global ambition.
Richards is Sheffield-born and a lifelong Sheffield Wednesday fan.
He’s also a hugely successful, multiple-exit entrepreneur and his pitch is built around something Sheffield has always had but rarely commercialised properly – its place in football history.
While modern football in the city has been dominated by Sheffield United and Wednesday, Sheffield FC holds the title of the oldest club in the world, having been founded in 1857.
The reported plan is a full-blown vision for a world-class project rooted in heritage, tourism, infrastructure and long-term regeneration.
The suggested funding package is around £250m and reports claim it could include a new city centre stadium inspired by Doha’s Lusail complex, built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup final.
There are also suggestions a museum could be created to celebrate Sheffield as the birthplace of the modern game.
Rumours claim that Qatari backers want more than just a football story, with ambitions to regenerate the area around Sheffield FC’s future home in the same way Abu Dhabi’s Manchester City ownership has reshaped parts of Manchester.
The proposed blueprint includes shops, hotels, restaurants and commercial space to create an ‘all-year-round’ destination.
Another idea mentioned is the creation of a world-leading women’s football project, something Qatar could potentially support through existing links in the global game.
Richards’ involvement in the bid follows a major shift in his wider business portfolio over the past few months.
In November, Sheffield-based investment company Lift Global Ventures plc announced it was rebranding as Yorkshire AI PLC and appointing him as executive chair.
The firm also has an ongoing working relationship with Yorkshire AI Labs, strengthening the link between the two.
One of Richards’ more infamous business ventures was the rise – and sharp crash – of WANdisco, the Sheffield software business he founded and built into one of the city’s best-known tech firms.
WANdisco had a strong reputation in enterprise data integration, but in 2023 the business was hit by a huge fraud scandal after it emerged that a senior sales employee had falsified purchase orders.
It triggered the suspension of trading in the company’s shares in March 2023 and forced it into emergency fundraising, shaking confidence in the company and dragging it into one of the most high-profile crises in the UK listed tech scene.
When trading resumed in July 2023, WANdisco’s share price collapsed from 1,310p to around 50p on the first day back.
The business later rebranded to Cirata plc in September 2023 as it tried to reset and rebuild credibility with investors, customers and the market.
Richards stepped down, with former Sage CEO Stephen Kelly taking over as chief executive, as the company reshaped its leadership team and tried to stabilise after a year that derailed what had previously been one of Sheffield’s flagship listed tech names.
More recently, Cirata has been trying to rebuild momentum, with the company’s latest trading update showing record bookings and growing confidence around its turnaround plan, with leadership targeting cash flow positivity in early FY26.
Yorkshire AI Labs has made a name for itself backing early-stage AI start-ups and Richards’ role keeps him close to the region’s investment and innovation pipeline.
For the club, a blockbuster takeover of this scale could be a historic one.
The club’s history is statistically unmatched, but it has never had the financial engine to match its legacy, which would be instantly flipped on its head with a £250m investment package.