One of Sheffield’s two football clubs, Sheffield United FC play in the Championship, the second tier of British football. It was originally an offshoot of the Sheffield United Cricket Club, but has gone on to found mainstream success in a way the cricket club never managed! Sheffield United FC’s closest rivals are derby team Sheffield Wednesday FC; and when they play each other, it’s known as the ‘Steel City Derby’.

Sheffield United FC are now well known for playing in red and white stripes, but began playing in blue and white. The team crest was originally the city’s coat of arms, but this became inappropriate for continual usage as another team from the city progressed through the ranks of professional football. Now, the crest features two crossed swords (incidentally, this is the club’s nickname: The Blades) and the Yorkshire Rose.

Based in the city centre, Sheffield United FC play at Bramall Lane, the oldest major league ground in the world! It’s played host to professional football matches since 1862, and hosted the world’s first ever floodlit match back in 1878 to a crowd of 20,000. Today, Bramall Lane seats almost 33,000 fans and is set to continue to expand with a proposal in place for a new club store and residential flats to be built between the Kop and South Stand.

Sheffield United FC has flourished as a team based in the second and third tiers of British football, which has seen them play their rivals Sheffield Wednesday on numerous occasions. The team also shares fierce rivalries with other teams from South Yorkshire including Barnsley, Rotherham United and Doncaster Rovers. Less fierce is their competitive streak against Leeds United (who hail from nearby West Yorkshire) and West Ham, as a result of the controversy around their signing of Carlos Tevez; although they rarely play the team due to the different leagues at play.