CHRIS TACKLES RUGBY CITY!

Ex-keeper Turner eyes professional bid

- Phil Brennan

WAKEFIELD is the largest city in the UK without a professional football team and while it has always been seen as a rugby league hotbed, Wakefield AFC, the city’s new football club, is aiming to break the mould.

Formed last year, the club have already made great strides with the first team playing at Step 7 (Level 11) in the Sheffield and Hallamshire County Senior Football League Premier, while becoming an accredited FA Charter Standard Adult Club and developing their own academy.

Former Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United keeper Chris Turner is part of the consortium that formed Wakefield AFC.

In a long and successful career, Turner has experienced all the highs and lows that playing and management can offer, and with several years in boardroom roles under his belt, the challenge to create and establish a football club in Wakefield was always going to be one he couldn’t turn down.

Installed as chairman, Turner has also taken on the role of director of football at the fledgling club. “I’ve known the club owner Mike Hegarty for many years, his company FBT had taken over an academy, and when he asked me to join them I had no hesitation. We spent some time developing our ideas and how we could offer something different to how other similar academies work.

Overseas