Beginnings and FA Cup glory Barnsley were established in 1887 as Barnsley St Peter's by
Reverend Tiverton Preedy, and they played in the Sheffield and District League from 1890 and in the
Midland League from 1895. In 1897, the club dropped the St Peter's part of 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 were defeated by
Newcastle United. In 1912, they reached the FA Cup final again, and defeated
West Bromwich Albion 1–0 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 main difference was that the
First Division would now have 22 teams, rather than 20. 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, Barnsley expected to achieve First Division status for the first time, but the Football League instead chose to call a ballot of the clubs. The League voted to promote sixth-placed Arsenal, prioritizing historical standing over sporting merit.
Sir Henry Norris, the then
Arsenal chairman, argued that Arsenal be promoted for their "long service to league football", having been the first League club from the South of England. 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. 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. Norris resigned as chairman and left the club in 1929, having been found guilty by the Football Association of financial irregularities; he was found to have misused his expenses account, and to have pocketed the proceeds of the sale of the Arsenal team bus.
Prewar and postwar eras The club came close to reaching the First Division in their early years. In the
1921–22 season, they missed out on promotion by
goal difference. During the 1930s and 1940s years, 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. In April 1953, he became one of the most expensive players in English football at the time when
Sir 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 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. 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 the 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.
Division One and the Premier League 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
Georgi 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.
Mixed fortunes in the 21st century 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 they 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. They gained promotion to the Championship following a 3–1 win over
Millwall in the
play-off final later that season. 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 suspended and subsequently dismissed by the club.
New ownership 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
Billy Beane, minority owner of and advisor for the
Athletics, who was widely known for the
Moneyball film portrayal, as part of an international investor consortium. Barnsley were relegated to the third tier in
2017–18. Following this, the new owners adopted a data-driven approach to identify talents, focusing on young players and team rebuilding. The club appointed
Daniel Stendel as head coach, who introduced a high-pressing style of play. Barnsley were promoted back to the Championship the
following season. In the
2019–20 season, under new coach
Gerhard Struber, Barnsley avoided relegation from the Championship. In
2020–21, under the management of
Valérien Ismaël, Barnsley finished fifth place and reached the
EFL Championship Play-offs for the first time in 24 years, doing so with the youngest squad and one of the smallest budgets in the division.
The Wall Street Journal called Barnsley a "
Moneyball experiment". Prior to the 2021–22 season,
Markus Schopp was appointed as the new head coach. In November 2021, he was dismissed after seven consecutive defeats. Three weeks later
Poya Asbaghi was appointed as his successor. Fortunes improved little as Barnsley were relegated from the
2021–22 EFL Championship following a 2–1 defeat against
Huddersfield Town. Asbaghi left the club by mutual consent shortly afterwards. On 15 June 2022,
Michael Duff was appointed head coach of Barnsley on a three-year contract. In May 2022, it was revealed that Pacific Media Group did not actually own all the shares they claimed to own, and were simply a nominee for a group of 4 investors who owned 20% of the club. Following this revelation, Neerav Parekh purchased the shares of 2 of the investors, while Matt Edmonds purchased the shares of the 4th investor. 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%). With this reconstituted shareholding and a loss of majority control, Paul Conway, Chien Lee, Grace Hung and Dickson Lee were voted off the board of Barnsley Football Club, and were replaced by Jean Cryne and Julie Anne Quay in May 2022. In July 2023, the EFL charged Barnsley with 5 breaches of the EFL Regulations related to the ownership of the club under Conway and Lee's tenure, whilst also charging Conway and Lee individually with causing these breaches in regulations. == Stadium ==