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Wednesday administration is 'bitter sweet'

Following the club going into administration, the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust described the situation as “bittersweet”, adding that it was “overjoyed to have Dejphon Chansiri out of our club for good”. It also said that, should a “suitable sale” not be forthcoming, the trust has been working on a fan-led takeover proposal to avoid the club being liquidated.  A Trust spokesman outlined this proposal on Radio 4 this morning, but it is difficult to see how fans could underwrite the club's losses.

The greater concerns of Wednesday fans will now be over the club’s long-term future.  The club’s accounts indicate that in the region of £115m is owed to Chansiri in the form of loans but a sale process led by his legal team since the end of last season has failed to bring new ownership.

The administration process and search for Chansiri’s replacement will be overseen by Manchester-based firm Begbies Traynor, which was previously appointed as administrators of Wigan Athletic in 2020. Paul Stanley, one of the administrators at Begbies Traynor, said: “There should be no interruption to the fixture schedule and we are in close contact with the EFL to ensure that the effects of this administration on the employees, supporters, the community and the players are minimised as far as possible.”

It is important to acknowledge that administration is not a get out of jail free card for badly-run clubs. First, there is the obvious sporting penalty, which practically confirms relegation, but second, and more importantly, there are very likely to be job losses. Suppliers, local and national, will also take a big hit on any debts the club has run up with them.

Chansiri  has spent over a year trying to find a rich idiot to massively overpay for the club so he can walk away from the damage he has caused with his “money back”. Rich idiots are clearly harder to find than he thought.

Sheffield Wednesday are clearly one of the biggest clubs outside the Premier League and will now be available at a realistic price as nearly all of the club’s debt, including Chansiri’s, is unsecured. The Athletic is aware of several potential bidders who have been waiting for this moment for some time.

In the nine full seasons for which we have financials since Chansiri took over in January 2015, Wednesday lost £121m, a figure which would be £39m higher were it not for the club selling their Hillsborough home to another company owned by Chansiri in 2019 to help avoid a rules breach.

The losses pre-date Chansiri. The last time Wednesday turned a profit without the aid of a stadium sale or a loan write-off was 2008. At last check, Chansiri had injected over £128m in funding; now, the money, or his appetite to provide it, has dried up.

 

 

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