Sheffield United administration risk? What happened with Prince Abdullah demand | OneFootball

The Blades were issued with a statutory demand by former owner Prince Abdullah in November, which could have put the club at risk of administration.

Sheffield United were issued with a demand for money from their former owner Prince Abdullah in November, which could have pushed the club into administration.

The 2025-26 season has, if nothing else, been a mixed bag for Sheffield United. Following sweeping changes during the summer in which manager Chris Wilder was sacked and replaced by Ruben Selles, an atrocious start to the new season resulted in Selles getting the sack himself in the middle of September and Wilder being reinstated.

This led to an upturn in form which has at least led the Blades to safety from the threat of relegation to League One, and with just under a third of the season left to play, even though they're below the midway point in the Championship table, there remains an outside chance that they could yet claim a play-off place come the end of the season.

But there remains a degree of unhappiness among the fans at Bramall Lane over the way in which Sheffield United have been run since COH Sports took ownership of the club, and this perception wasn't helped by reports at the end of 2025 that the club could be plunged into crisis by a legal letter which had been sent to the club in November of that year.

Sheffield United were issued with a statutory demand in November 2025

Sky Sports reported a piece of news in December which will have sent a shiver down the spine of some Sheffield United fans, that the club had been issued with a statutory demand by the former club owner Prince Abdullah in relation to an unpaid £10 million installment towards the cost of COH Sports having bought the club in the first place.

The article also confirmed that Prince Abdullah had written to the EFL with concerns over how COH Sports were going to fund the running of the club in the future, and that COH Sports had been speaking to him and others about the possibility of investment in return for a minority stake in the club, although these were confirmed to have come to nothing.

Statutory demand issuance will not have quelled the nerves of those worried by COH Sports' ownership of Sheffield United

A statutory demand is a pre-action protocol letter requiring full payment of a debt before a winding-up petition is presented to a court. They are generally considered a serious issue, and are often used as a collection tool in the face of persistent late or non-payment of an outstanding debt.

They give 21 days for the debt to be paid, and if they're not dealt with - either by paying the debt, making an arrangement to pay it to the creditor's satisfaction, or applying to the court to set aside the demand; which can only normally be done in the event that it was incorrectly sent - the next stage in the process would be for the creditor apply to the court with a winding-up petition.

These letters don't have any direct relationship with administration, but businesses who are unable to satisfy statutory demands may apply to enter administration at such a point because to do so immediately nullifies the threat of liquidation by immunising them against further legal action. Prince Abdullah seems perfectly knowledgeable of English legal procedures, given that he took ownership of the club in the first place by winning a High Court battle against former Blades chairman Kevin McCabe.

There has been complete radio silence on the matter since then from both Prince Abdullah and Sheffield United, which indicates that the demand was satisfied. Sky Sports' report stated that, "after this latest legal dispute, they [COH Sports] are currently up-to-date with all monies owed to the previous owner", but this is a slightly fuzzy statement regarding an area of law which can be extremely precise in its definitions.

But Sheffield United fans troubled by COH Sport's ownership of the club will not have had their nerves settled by the fact that a statutory demand was issued in the first place. The American venture capital group completed their purchase of the club in December 2024, but there have been few signs of this having been a successful purchase, with the team having missed out on a quick return to the Premier League at the end of 2024-25 and having been stuck in the bottom half of the Championship table for the entirety of this season.

The statutory demand issued against the club may have been satisfied, but there remains a sizable tranche of the Blades' support which remains distinctly unsatisfied at the way in which their club has been run since the takeover.