Wednesday decays under unpopular owner

Sheffield Wednesday’s happiest recent times in the early 1990s, when they were regulars in the upper echelons of the top flight and frequent travellers to Wembley in cup competitions, seem a long time ago.

It is 25 years since they were last in the Premier League and Wednesday now resemble a decaying club under the ownership of Dejphon Chansiri, a 57-year-old businessman whose family own the Thai Union Group (TUG), the world’s largest producer of canned tuna. The money has dried up and so, too, has hope.

The summer has brought no respite to the anxiety. The majority of Wednesday’s first-team players have gone through June without pay, prompting the English Football League (EFL) to impose a transfer ban that will run until 2027. Another payday came and went on Monday of this week, again with the bulk of staff going unpaid.

Last Thursday was supposedly the first day of pre-season for the Wednesday squad, but talented head coach Danny Rohl was not there to greet players: he had signalled his intent to move on as far back as April. Most of his support staff, too, formally saw their contracts expire on June 30.  Not with two EFL transfer embargoes now in place. One for the non-payment of players, the other for taxes owed to HM Revenue and Customs. The latter liability, as per the league’s regulations, was self-reported last week and made public on Friday. It promises to make it a summer rebuild with two hands tied. 

This is a club crying out for a fresh start but Chansiri has refused to grant it. A rare public statement, issued last week, reiterated his willingness to sell but negotiations with two consortiums in the last month have failed to reach an agreement at a time when there is no money left to meet the wage obligations.

Chansiri said one group, led by Sheffield-born businessman Adam Shaw and American real estate investor John Flanagan, had offered £40million ($55m) and “limited future Premier League promotion payments” but had deemed that short of his expectations. 

The late payment of wages has been a common thread of Chansiri’s reign but never to this extent. Salaries for March came late, repeating a scenario from 2021, when the club failed to meet its obligations in four consecutive months to incur another EFL charge. Only the Covid-19 pandemic brought leniency on that occasion and a suspended six-point penalty.

Chansiri does not operate a board of directors and is the only shareholder in the club he has owned for over a decade. According to documents filed at the UK’s Companies House, no other figure has held a position of authority at Wednesday since Katrien Meire stepped down as chief executive in February 2019 after a brief spell in the post. Chansiri has effectively sailed this ship alone.

Chansiri has gradually built up an unflattering image as being awkward, combustible and intransigent.

For now, Chansiri fights on. Analysis of Wednesday’s accounts indicates that in the region of £115m is now owed to the owner in the form of loans. Administration, should it come to that, would hurt Chansiri more than anyone.