Real Bedford Football Club is a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
club in
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district.
Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, established in 2002 as a merger of
Bedford United and US Valerio. They are members of the , the eighth tier of the English football system, and play at McMullen Park.
History
Bedford United
Bedford United were established in 1957, the
works team
A works team, sometimes also referred to as factory team and company team, is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business, institution, or organization in a broad sense. Works teams have very close ties with thei ...
of the printing firm Diemer & Reynolds.
[About us]
Bedford F.C. In 1971 the club joined Division Three of the
United Counties League
The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''GCE Hire Fleet Ltd. United Counties League'') is an England, English association football, football league covering an area including the English Counties of the United Kingdom, ...
, which was renamed Division Two the following season. They remained in Division Two until leaving the league in 1979,
dropping into the
Bedfordshire County League, going on to win Division One in 1979–80. In 1989 they joined Division One of the
South Midlands League
The South Midlands League was a football league covering Bedfordshire and some adjoining counties in England. It was founded in 1922 as the Bedfordshire County League and merged with the Spartan League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midlands ...
, becoming a member of the Senior Division following league reorganisation in 1993.
[ In 1995–96 they finished third in the division, earning promotion to the Premier Division.][
In 1997 the South Midlands League merged with the Spartan League to form the Spartan South Midlands League, with Bedford United placed in the Premier Division North.][ After finishing fourteenth in the division in the league's first season, they were placed in the Senior Division the following season.][ A third-place finish in 1999–2000 saw them promoted to the Premier Division.][
]
US Valerio
Unione Sportiva Valerio was formed as a Sunday league club in 1985 and was named after its founder Nicola Valerio.[
]
Merged club
The two clubs merged in 2002 to form Bedford United & Valerio, taking Bedford United's place in the Premier Division of the Spartan South Midlands League.[ In 2006 they were renamed Bedford Valerio United, before being renamed simply Bedford in 2007.]
Real Bedford
In 2022 the club was taken over by bitcoin
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
podcaster Peter McCormack, who became chairman, having previously stated that he intended for the club to reach the Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
. The club's name was changed to Real Bedford before the 2022–23 season, which saw them win the Bedfordshire Senior Trophy and the Division One title, earning promotion to the Premier Division.
In 2024 American cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Individual coin ownership record ...
investors, Cameron
Cameron may refer to:
People
* Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan
* Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
;Mononym
* Cam'ron (born 19 ...
and Tyler Winklevoss
Tyler Howard Winklevoss (born August 21, 1981) is an American investor, founder of Winklevoss Capital Management and Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and former Olympic rower. Winklevoss co-founded HarvardConnection (later renamed ConnectU) ...
invested $4.5 million in the club. Days after the investment, the club achieved the second of back-to-back promotions, winning the Premier Division title to earn promotion to Division One Central of the Southern League.
On 17 January 2025, a club statement was released concerning a proposed merger between the club and local rivals, Bedford Town FC. In April 2025, the club secured a third consecutive promotion, winning the Southern League Division One Central title.[ ] Three months after the announcement of a planned merger with Bedford Town FC, on 17 April 2025, both clubs announced that the merger would not be going ahead due to the fact that they could not negotiate terms before the due date on 23 April 2025.
Ground
Bedford United initially played on a pitch at the printers' firm, before moving to the nearby village of Cople
Cople is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. The name Cople is derived from the phrase ''Cock Pool'', a place where chickens were kept, that was mentioned in the Domesday Book.
History
Cople is part of the anc ...
and then returning to Bedford to play at Allen Park.[ They subsequently played at Fairhill on Clapham Road,][ where the club's record attendance of 1,500 was set for a South Midlands League match against ]Bedford Town
Bedford Town Football Club is a football club based in the Borough of Bedford, England. The club are currently members of the and play at the Eyrie in Cardington, a village on the outskirts of Bedford. They are full members of the Football As ...
.[Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2012) ''Non-League Club Directory 2013'', p766 ]
The land was later bought by Sainsbury's and Bedford United temporarily groundshared with Kempston Rovers at Hillgrounds, before moving to McMullen Park in 1996.[ The ground was named for Jim McMullen, one of the club's founders.][ When the merged club was formed, they continued to play at McMullen Park.
]
Honours
*Southern Football League
**Division One Central 2024–25
*Spartan South Midlands League
**Premier Division champions 2023–24
**Division One champions 2022–23
*Bedfordshire Senior Trophy
**Winners 2012–13, 2022–23
Records
*Best FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
performance: Preliminary round, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2023–24[
*Best ]FA Trophy
The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...
performance: Third qualifying round, 2024–25FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...
performance: Second round, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2023–24[
]
See also
*
References
External links
*
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Association football clubs established in 2002
2002 establishments in England
Football clubs in Bedfordshire
Football clubs in England
Sport in Bedford
Works association football teams in England
Spartan South Midlands Football League
Southern Football League clubs