Sheffield United will hope to return to promotion contention under Chris Wilder in 2026/27.

The Blades had a poor season, finishing 13th in the Championship, 13 points out of the playoffs.

The Yorkshire club made it to the play-off final in 2025, losing 2-1 to Sunderland, but they have struggled to maintain that level of competition in the last year.

COH Sports, which took over the second division side in December 2024, had a dismal first full year in charge.

They oversaw Wilder’s removal following the play-off loss, although he was reinstated after only five games into the new season, following Ruben Selles’ firing.

Former owner Prince Abdullah’s recent actions against COH Sports could worsen the situation.

COH Sports receives winding-up petition.

It was reported earlier this week that Prince Abdullah had filed a winding-up petition with COH Sports due to a disagreement over money owed as part of the sale of Sheffield United.

Kris Wigfield, the previous administrator of Sheffield Wednesday, verified that the petition appeared on the court register.

The former Sheffield United owner is suing for millions of pounds he believes he is owed as part of the club’s sale.

Wigfield claims that this winding-up petition against COH Sport is equal to one against the Championship side, and that any sporting sanctions imposed by the EFL would be the same.

However, there is no certainty that the EFL will become involved at this point, with the administrator claiming that the two parties are currently playing cat and mouse.

Prince Abdullah has previously threatened the new Sheffield United owners with liquidation over a £10 million debt he believes is owed to him, but it is now claimed that the figure has increased to £35 million as a result of the takeover agreement, which requires payments in installments.

This £35 million number refers to the arrangement Prince Abdullah and COH Sports signed for the sale of Sheffield United, but he has also contacted the EFL and the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) about it.

COH Sports received the first demand to pay the debt in late 2025, with the Saudi billionaire threatening to file a winding-up suit if not compensated.

This winding-up petition has now arrived, which will be alarming for Sheffield United fans because it puts the club in danger of going bankrupt.

However, there is no indication that COH Sports cannot pay the £35 million price, implying that this disagreement may still be settled.

If they just didn’t have the funds to cover this compensation, administration would undoubtedly follow.

Sheffield United had no immediate concerns over Prince Abdullah’s action.

Instead, there must be another reason why the money has not been transferred to Prince Abdullah, which is unclear at this point.

Kieran Maguire, a football finance expert, claims that COH Sports, which has renamed as 1919 Partners LLC in the midst of this issue, has essentially established a shell company to complete the takeover of Sheffield United.

“There was a contract for, effectively, COH Sports Bidco Ltd to pay the Prince a series of installments for the agreed sale price for Sheffield United Football Club,” Maguire told The Star.

“And it appears that COH Sports Bidco has not kept their end of the contract.

“Now, I’m looking at their Companies House profile, and they’ve already employed one or two delaying techniques to avoid posting any accounts.

“So there’s nothing there to figure out what’s behind the company.

“We appear to have a shell company.

“There were a lot of directors coming in, and the business was set up for £1, which is usually cause for concern because you can do stuff like this. And then there was the apparent sale to another corporation under the umbrella [1919].

Maguire believes that lawyers will be engaged in resolving this matter, and that the Blades may have found a way to avoid paying their former owner.

“That means that if the Prince tries to acquire the money from COH Sports Bidco and they say, ‘Well, we aren’t going to pay you,’ he no longer has anything to extract from that corporation. Because the assets have been shifted to a different area of the group,” he explained.

“Now, I’m not a lawyer, but I would have thought that a good lawyer or someone experienced would have drawn up a contract to ensure that if control of the football club was transferred, any monies owed to the Prince would immediately become payable before the transaction could be completed.

“If that’s not the case, then we’ve got a complication.”

It remains to be seen whether the EFL or the IFR will intervene in this case, but for the time being, it is up to the new and previous Sheffield United owners to settle their differences before it escalates.