Is Hallam FC — the world’s second oldest club — about to tear itself apart?

Few of us can claim to be as devoted to anything as 48-year-old Scott Loveluck is to Hallam FC. In the brief window before our phone call turns hostile, the Cornwall-based lawyer — who occasionally acts as the club’s pro-bono legal representative — tells me he’s been a fan since the age of seven and regularly travels 766 miles from the West Country to Sandygate stadium and back again in order to watch the team play. Even during the period he lived in Switzerland, he still made the 1,600-mile round trip to fixtures as often as possible. “It’s the greatest football club in the entire world,” he insists.

Thus, when Loveluck begins reaching for every spanner in his legal toolbox that might prevent this article being published, I can only assume he believes he’s doing what’s best for his beloved club — even if other fans would vehemently disagree. It starts with a threat that he will secure an injunction against us, a court order which would forbid us from publishing. Within days, he abandons this idea and begins insisting that our article would collapse an ongoing legal case, meaning we could be in danger of a conviction for contempt of court if we proceed. After our lawyer, unable to find any sign of an active case involving the club, asks for details to confirm, he never responds.

Certainly, no one would deny that Hallam FC is not doing very well right now. The team is currently rock bottom of the league, having lost seven of the nine games they have played this season. At the end of last season, the manager, coaching staff and the majority of the team’s players deserted en masse. “The rumours of financial issues persist,” wrote one fan on Sheffield Forum back in May. “There has been no official statement from the club since the farce of the potential takeover didn't happen.” Another responded saying it “would be a crying shame” if the club folded, adding: “Hopefully, someone steps in to sort things out.”

A group of 16 fans, which includes a former member of the club’s leadership committee, is itching to do just that. Led by Steve Walmsley — a retiree and former Wednesday fan, who began following Hallam FC after growing frustrated with the Owls’ former chairman Dejphon Chansiri — they hope to depose the current leadership and seize control at an Annual General Meeting in just a few weeks’ time. (This meeting was originally scheduled to take place in July but was postponed due to “certain legal challenges,” according to a statement on the club’s website.) This group claim the club’s current struggles are the result of months of financial mismanagement. They’re confident they could do a better job. 

Though Loveluck is not part of the current leadership committee, he is firmly opposed to the faction looking to boot them out. “They are a bunch of mentally-ill Sheffield Wednesday fans with too much time on their hands,” he thunders down the phone, when I mention this group. “They are talking out of their arse.” As a result, he insists there can be no public interest in exploring the concerns they have raised about mismanagement. “It’s not public interest, it’s public nosiness,” he informs me, before hanging up the phone with a Hollywood flourish: “I’ll see you in court.”

According to those familiar with the situation, the road that led Hallam FC here includes a vicious spat over VIP lanyards, a resignation and immediate un-resignation, plus two opposed sides who both fear the other might flog off a historic club asset to the highest bidder.