Barnsley F.C.

They twice reached the final of the FA Cup whilst still in the second tier, losing to Newcastle United in 1910 and winning the competition over West Bromwich Albion in 1912.[4] It has been alleged that this was due to backroom deals and even outright bribery by Sir Henry Norris, colluding with his friend John McKenna, the chairman of Liverpool and the Football League, who recommended Arsenal's promotion at the AGM.[5] No conclusive proof of wrongdoing has come to light, though other aspects of Norris's financial dealings unrelated to the promotion controversy have fuelled speculation on the matter.[7] 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.Taylor went on to be a prolific goalscorer at the highest level over the next five years, winning two league titles and scoring 16 goals in 19 appearances for the England national football team, before losing his life in the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958.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.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.[10] 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.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.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.[13] 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.[14] 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 executive vice president of baseball operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball, Billy Beane (famous from the Moneyball film), as part of the international investor consortium.[18] The club appointed Daniel Stendel as head coach,[19] who played high pressing football; Barnsley were promoted back to the Championship the following season.[22] In 2020–21, under the management of Valérien Ismaël, Barnsley finished in fifth place and made it to the EFL Championship Play-offs for the first time in 24 years, with the youngest squad and one of the smallest budgets in the league.Following the purchases and further equity raises, the new ownership of the club is now understood to be split between Neerav Parekh (61.14%), the Cryne family (21.30%), Julie Anne Quay and Matt Edmonds (11%), Chien Lee (4.60%),and Conway's company Pacific Media Group (1.96%).Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports development in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, used primarily by the club for playing its home fixtures, and its reserves.