Group confirms acquisition of Sheffield United FC

COH Sports, a group of entrepreneurs, business partners and friends established to invest in sporting opportunities, has acquired Sheffield United Football Club, which competes in the EFL Championship.

COH Sports is led by Steven Rosen, the founder and chairman of Resilience Capital Partners, and Dr Helmy Eltoukhy, co-founder and chairman of biotech firm Guardant Health.

They will join the Board of the club as co-chairmen with immediate effect.

The new ownership group says it supports the current management team, including Stephen Bettis and Chris Wilder.

As well as purchasing the football club, the deal also includes Sheffield United Women, SUFC Hotel Ltd and all real estate.

COH Sports has formally acquired the 100% share capital of Blades Leisure Ltd – the parent company of Sheffield United Football Club – from United World Holdings Ltd.

In a joint statement, Rosen and Eltoukhy said: “We are honoured and humbled to become the new owners of this historic football club.

“We are excited to embark on this journey and our work begins today to deliver long-term success for Sheffield United over a sustained period of time.

“Like all Blades fans we want to see the club competing in the top-flight of English football consistently, not just on a one-off basis, and we have been encouraged by the strong start to this season.

“The team has been performing strongly and we are committed to supporting the management team to continue this progress.

“We want to take this chance to assure the supporters that we understand the huge responsibility that comes with owning Sheffield United.

“The club is rooted in the fabric of this great city and our fans are the beating heart who back the team no matter what.

“Our fans will be at the heart of what COH stands for, and we are deeply committed to ensuring Sheffield United is accessible and affordable for our supporters.”

COH Sports adds that at the heart of its plans will be a “best-in-class” scouting network, along with data and analytics to ensure Sheffield United is match fit for the future.

As well as being founder and chairman of Resilience Capital, Rosen is also a co-founder of Zanite Corporation and Gammite Ventures, and the manager of Azurite Management LLC.

He has served on the boards of directors of several public and private companies including Flex Jet Holdings Inc, Park Ohio Industries, Crawford United Corporation and others.

Rosen has held leadership roles in organisations such as the Cleveland Clinic Heart Centre and University Hospitals Cancer Centre.

Eltoukhy is a scientist, entrepreneur and investor, best known for his contributions to next generation DNA sequencing and advancing cancer testing technologies.

He is the co-founder and currently chairman and co-CEO of Guardant Health. Under his leadership, Guardant Health launched breakthrough blood tests for cancer patients, cancer survivors and recently the first FDA-approved first-line blood test for the early detection of cancer.

In 2023, Guardant began a collaboration with the Royal Marsden in London to help test over 10,000 lung cancer patients annually across England in partnership with the NHS.

Eltoukhy is a general partner at Green Sands Equity, a trustee of the SETI Institute, and is on the boards of a number of healthcare-related non-profit organisations.

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