Barnsley F.C.

Barnsley were established in 1887 as "Barnsley St Peter's" by a clergyman, Tiverton Preedy, and played in the Sheffield and District League from 1890 and then in the Midland League from 1895. In 1897, the club dropped "St Peter's" from its name to become simply Barnsley. They joined the Football League in 1898, and struggled in the Second Division for the first decade, due in part to ongoing financial difficulties. In 1910, the club reached the FA Cup final, where they lost out to Newcastle United in a replay match. In 1912, they reached the FA Cup final again, and defeated West Bromwich Albion 1–0 after a replay to win the trophy for the first time in their history. When league football restarted after the First World War, the 1919–20 season brought some significant changes to the league. The principal difference was that the First Division would be increased from 20 teams to 22. The bottom team from the previous season was Tottenham Hotspur and they were relegated. The first extra place in the First Division went to Chelsea, who retained their place despite finishing second bottom and therefore in the relegation places. Derby County and Preston North End were promoted from the Second Division which left one place to be filled. Having finished the previous season's Second Division in third place (1914–15), Barnsley expected to achieve First Division status for the first time, but the Football League instead chose to call a ballot of the clubs. Henry Norris, the then Arsenal chairman, had recently moved Woolwich Arsenal north of the River Thames to Highbury, and needed First Division football to attract fans to their new home. He was later to admit some underhand dealings, allegedly including the bribing of some member clubs to vote for Arsenal's inclusion. They won the vote and Barnsley were consigned to the second tier of English football.

The club did however come close to reaching the top division in the early years. In 1921–22, they missed out on promotion by goal difference. During the years preceding and following the Second World War, the club found themselves sliding between the Second and Third Division. In 1949, the club signed Danny Blanchflower from Glentoran, and he impressed at Oakwell that two years later he was signed by First Division side Aston Villa, later signing for Tottenham Hotspur and being voted FWA Player of the Year twice, as well as being the captain of the 20th century's first league and cup double winning team in 1960–61. Around the time of Blanchflower's departure, a young centre-forward called Tommy Taylor broke into the Barnsley team, scoring 26 goals in 44 games for Barnsley. In April 1953, he became one of the most expensive players in English football at the time when Matt Busby signed him for Manchester United for a fee of £29,999. Taylor went on to be a prolific goalscorer at the highest level over the next five years, winning two league titles and also scoring 16 times in 19 appearances for the England national football team, before losing his life in the Munich air disaster in February 1958.

When the Northern and Southern sections of the Third Division were replaced by national Third and Fourth Divisions for the 1958–59 season, Barnsley were still in the Second Division, but went down to the Third Division at the end of that season. In 1965, Barnsley were relegated to the Football League Fourth Division for the first time, winning promotion three years later. They went down to the Fourth Division again in 1972, and this time stayed down for seven seasons, finally returning to the Third Division in 1979. Two years later, they went up again and quickly established themselves as a decent Second Division side throughout the 1980s, although they still failed to clinch that elusive First Division place, despite the introduction of the play-offs in the second half of the decade, which gave teams finishing as low as fifth and eventually sixth the chance of winning promotion.

Manager Danny Wilson guided Barnsley to the Premier League in 1996–97.

For the 1994–95 season, Barnsley turned to midfielder Danny Wilson to manage the club. His first season brought a sixth-place finish in the First Division, which would normally have meant a play-off place, but a restructuring of the league meant that they missed out. They finished 10th a year later before finally emerging as serious promotion contenders in the 1996–97 season, finally clinching runners-up spot and automatic promotion and gaining the top flight place that they had spent 99 years trying to win. Barnsley lasted just one season in the Premier League but they did reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, defeating Manchester United in the fifth round. They also made their record signing that season with Gjorgji Hristov for £2 million. Wilson then departed to take over at Sheffield Wednesday, being succeeded as Barnsley manager by striker John Hendrie, who had been a key player in the promotion-winning team. Barnsley were the only team from outside the Premier League to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in the 1998–99 season, but only finished 13th in the league. Hendrie was then replaced as manager by Dave Bassett, who rejuvenated the team and took them to fourth place in 1999–2000. The team lost in the play-off final to Ipswich Town, the last play-off final at Wembley before the stadium was closed for redevelopment.[4]

The team were relegated to the Second Division in 2002; administration threatened the existence of the club as Barnsley suffered greatly due to the ITV Digital crisis. A late purchase by Barnsley's then mayor, Peter Doyle, saved the club from folding. In 2006, the side won in the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, where they beat Swansea City 4–3 on penalties to earn promotion to the Championship. The manager at this time was Andy Ritchie, who was in his first season in charge after replacing Paul Hart. The team struggled in their first season back in the Championship. In November 2006, with Barnsley in the relegation zone, Ritchie was sacked in favour of Simon Davey, who managed to steer the team away from relegation in the second half of the season, and the eventually finished 20th. The following season, Barnsley reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, beating Premier League side Liverpool 2–1 at Anfield and defending champions Chelsea 1–0; the team lost 1–0 against fellow Championship side Cardiff City at Wembley in the semi-final. In October 2008, the club fielded the youngest player in the Football League's history when Reuben Noble-Lazarus came on against Ipswich Town aged 15 years and 45 days.

Barnsley ended the 2011–12 season as one of only two football clubs to turn a profit in the Championship; they stayed up only because Portsmouth were given a 10-point deduction for going into administration. In 2016, Barnsley won the Football League Trophy after a 3–2 win against Oxford United.[5] They gained promotion to the Championship following a 3–1 win over Millwall in the play-off final later that season.[6] In September 2016, Barnsley were caught up in an ongoing scandal in English football, with assistant manager Tommy Wright alleged to have accepted "bungs" in exchange for working as an ambassador for a third-party player ownership consortium. Wright was initially suspended before being sacked by Barnsley.[7]

Barnsley owners Chien Lee and Paul Conway at Oakwell

In December 2017, Patrick Cryne and his family sold an 80% stake in the club to NewCity Capital's Chien Lee and Pacific Media Group's Paul Conway; they were joined by Indian investor Neerav Parekh and former baseball player Billy Beane, as part of the international investor consortium.[8][9] Barnsley were relegated to the third tier in 2017–18;[10] afterwards. the new owners used a data approach to identify talents, focusing on young players and team rebuilding.[11] The club appointed Daniel Stendel as head coach,[12] who played high pressing football; Barnsley were promoted back to the Championship the following season.[13] In the 2019–20 season, under new coach Gerhard Struber,[14] Barnsley avoided relegation from the Championship.[15] In 2020–21, Barnsley, with the youngest squad and one of the smallest budgets in the league, finished in fifth place and made it to the EFL Championship play-offs for the first time in 24 years.[16] The Wall Street Journal called Barnsley a "Moneyball experiment".[17] In 2021, Barnsley named Markus Schopp as Barnsley's new coach.[18]

In November 2021, Barnsley sacked Schopp. Three weeks later they appointed Poya Asbaghi.

During 2022, a small group of Barnsley supporters began peaceful protests against Paul Conway, Chien Lee and the remainder of the Pacific Media Group who own the football club.

Barnsley were relegated from the 2021–22 EFL Championship following a 2–1 defeat against Huddersfield Town.[19]

Barnsleys home shirt in the 1997–98 Premier League season

Barnsley have played their home games in red shirts for most of their history. The only exception to this is the period 1887–1901, where it is speculated that the team first wore blue shirts with claret arms, then circa 1890 the team wore chocolate and white stripes, before moving on to blue and white stripes around 1898. The team first wore red shirts in 1901.[21] Since this time, the team have worn red shirts often with a white trim, although in more recent times a black trim has sometimes been used. As with most football clubs the shirt design varies from season to season. One particular design that stands out is the 1989–90 season shirt which featured white stars on a red background and has been named as one of the worst shirts ever.[22] Manufacturers logos were added to the shirt in 1976–77, while sponsors were first added in the 1980–81 season.

Barnsley's away shirt in the 1998–99 season

The club's away strip (used for away or cup fixtures where there is a clash of colours) differs from season to season but usually follows the design of the season's home strip with a variation on the colours. The most common colour for the away shirt has been white but many others have been used, including blue, yellow, black, ecru, dark green and even black and blue stripes. One notable away strip was the 2001–02 "Its just like watching Brazil" kit, where the team wore the colours of the five-time World Cup winners Brazil for their away games.

As of 27 April 2022[23]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ENG Jack Walton 2 DF  ENG Jordan Williams 4 MF  HUN Callum Styles 5 DF  ENG Liam Kitching 6 DF  DEN Mads Andersen 7 DF  ENG Callum Brittain 9 FW  ENG Cauley Woodrow (captain) 10 MF  ENG Josh Benson 11 FW  BEL Aaron Leya Iseka 13 GK  NGA Daniel Jinadu 14 FW  ENG Carlton Morris

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 DF  ENG Jasper Moon 21 MF  ENG Romal Palmer 22 MF  KEN Clarke Oduor 23 MF  IRL William Hondermarck 24 DF  FIN Aapo Halme 26 DF  FRA Rémy Vita (on loan from Bayern Munich) 29 FW  NGA Victor Adeboyejo 30 DF  POL Michał Helik 40 GK  ENG Brad Collins 44 FW  ENG Devante Cole

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 8 MF  ENG Herbie Kane (at Oxford United) 16 MF  ENG Luke Thomas (at Bristol Rovers) 19 FW  AUT Patrick Schmidt (at Esbjerg) 25 FW  ENG George Miller (at Walsall)

No. Pos. Nation Player 41 MF  ENG Joe Ackroyd (at MFK Vyškov) 58 FW  BEL Obbi Oularé (at RWD Molenbeek) 60 FW  SCO Jack Aitchison (at Forest Green) — FW  LTU Tomas Kalinauskas (at AFC Wimbledon)

As of 1 February 2022[24]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 MF  WAL Isaac Christie-Davies 32 DF  ENG Jason Sraha 33 MF  ENG Matty Wolfe 34 FW  ENG David Bremang 37 FW  ENG Aiden Marsh 38 DF  ENG Jordan Helliwell 39 DF  ISR Amir Ariely 42 MF  ENG Connor Hodgson

No. Pos. Nation Player 43 DF  ENG Charlie Winfield 45 DF  ENG Kareem Hassan-Smith 46 FW  ENG Cameron Thompson 47 FW  ENG Jack Sherlock 48 GK  ENG Archie Brown 50 MF  ENG Will Lancaster 52 FW  AUS Angus Chapman

As of 1 September 2021[25]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 51 GK  ENG Kieran Flavell 53 DF  ENG Daniel Benson 54 MF  ENG Blake Goucher 55 DF  ENG Ben Hall 56 MF  ENG Keegan Hartley 57 MF  ENG Harrison Nejman 59 FW  ENG Lloyd Smith — DF  ENG Matty Doyle — DF  ENG Alex Joof — DF  ENG Luis Lacey

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  ENG Josh McKay — DF  ENG Kynan Murchison — DF  ENG Hayden Pickard — MF  ENG Theo Chapman — MF  ENG Charlie Hickingbottom — MF  ENG Jean Claude Makiessi — FW  ENG Alex Anaman — FW  ENG Mylan Benjamin — FW  ENG Josiah Dyer

• Chien Lee
• Pacific Media Group
• Cryne family
• Neerav Parekh

• Owner(s):
  • Co-Chairman: Chien Lee
  • Co-Chairman: Paul Conway
  • Director: Neerav Parekh
  • Director: James Cryne
  • Director: Grace Hung
  • Director: Dickson Lee
• Chief Executive Officer: Khaled El-Ahmad
• Finance and Operations Director: Mr Robert Zuk

• Head Coach: vacant
• Assistant Coach: vacant
• Academy Manager: Bobby Hassell
• U23s Head Coach: Martin Devaney
• U18s Head Coach: Tom Harban

Football League Championship and predecessors (tier 2)

• Runners-up: 1996–97

Football League One and predecessors (tier 3)

• Winners (3): 1933–34, 1938–39, 1954–55
• Promoted: 1980–81, 2018–19
• Play–off winners (2): 2006, 2016

Football League Two and predecessors (tier 4)

• Promoted: 1967–68, 1978–79

FA Cup

• Winners (1): 1911–12
• Finalists: 1909–10

Football League Trophy

• Winners (1): 2015–16

Source:[27][28]