Sheffield FC aims to buy back 1859 rules booklet at auction

The 1859 booklet, found in a scrapbook, also contain handwritten notes and changes

A football club, billed as the world's oldest, is facing a struggle to buy a rules booklet it originally produced more than 160 years ago.

Members of Sheffield FC helped draw up the 16-page Rules, Regulations, and Laws of the Sheffield Foot-Ball Club.

The item, from 1859, is one of only two known copies in existence and could fetch £70,000 in an upcoming auction.

Club chairman Richard Tims said: "We are a living, breathing antique but with a rich history."

Mr Tims said the club had set up a a crowd-funding scheme to raise cash to buy the relic, but it was "a tough ask".

The club's online fundraiser has currently garnered less than £800.

However, he was hopeful that friends and followers of the team may be able to help.

"We might be able to buy our heritage back," he said.

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Sheffield FC now has 4,000 members across the world, it said

Ironically, Sheffield FC had to sell a "much bigger collection of memorabilia", including another rules booklet, 10 years ago.

That sale raised more than £800,000 which was needed to save the club's ground in 2011.

"We had to make a make a difficult decision but a few bits of paper, no matter how important, were better than having no ground," said Mr Tims.

He added: "I'm very surprised another copy has come on the market, it's a very flimsy item held together by cotton thread and has survived for 162 years."

It is thought about 40 pamphlets were originally produced for the club's members.

Since 2006, the club has called Dronfield in Derbyshire home, but there are plans for a new ground back in Sheffield complete with a visitor centre - which would feature the booklet if they managed to acquire it.

"This is more than a dream, we want to move back," Mr Tims said.

He added the club are about to put in planning permission for their current ground that would help fund the move back to the city.

Sheffield FC currently play over the border in Derbyshire but plan to return home

Sheffield FC

• The South Yorkshire club was founded in 1857 and played a key role in providing the rules of modern football

• It was formed six years before the Football Association was founded

• It played a crucial role in the development of the modern game and the indirect free kick, the corner and the crossbar were all innovations of the Sheffield game

• It is recognised by FIFA and the FA as the world's first football club

• Sheffield's near neighbour, Hallam FC was formed in 1860 and in the same year the two clubs first met each other in the a local derby