The final battle to secure ownership of Championship club Sheffield Wednesday is set to feature six bidders, as administrators prepare to name their preferred option in the next two weeks.
Wednesday have been in administration since October 24, when
former owner Dejphon Chansiri, a Thai businessman, marked the end of a 10-year
reign with an ignominious exit from Hillsborough.
Five formal bids have now been tabled in the last week, with
the expectation of another still to come.
Among those still in the running are U.S. businessman John McEvoy and
former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley. The latter’s opening bid, in the
region of £20million, has not met the administrators’ desired threshold of
£30m, but at least two of those other suitors’ bids have.
Multiple sources, granted anonymity by the New York Times to
protect working relations, do not currently consider there to be a clear
frontrunner in a process that is now likely to go beyond the initial target
date of next Friday.
The interest shown in Wednesday over the past five weeks
points tentatively towards an outcome that will see the club in new hands early
in the new year.
McEvoy, a minority shareholder in NHL team Nashville
Predators and MLB side Colorado Rockies, is known to have visited South
Yorkshire and has now moved with an offer he believes can see him take
ownership, after previously considering a bid to buy Coventry City in 2022.
Another U.S.-based group is also around the table, along
with at least one from the UK. Anders Holch Povlsen, owner of Danish club
Midtjylland, is also believed to have shown an interest in Wednesday, but it is
unclear if that has led to a firm offer.
Not among those under consideration to be Wednesday’s next
owners are COH Sports, a U.S.-based consortium led by Steven Rosen and Helmy
Eltoukhy that currently owns city rivals Sheffield United.
It has been widely reported this week that COH Sport sent an
email to Wednesday’s administrators early in the process, declaring an interest
that could see the two historic clubs merge.
The correspondence, purporting to have been sent from Ohio,
has not been verified, and, as yet, it is unclear whether United’s owners were
behind it. No direct denial has so far been forthcoming from COH Sport, who
only arrived at Bramall Lane last December.
Wednesday will almost certainly be a League One club next
summer, but the undoubted potential of the club has meant the financial
requirements of a takeover have not dimmed interest. At least £30m will be
needed to cover outstanding taxes, secured football creditors and other
creditors, who must be paid 25p in the £1 if Wednesday are to satisfy the EFL’s
insolvency rules and escape a further 15-point penalty in 2026-27. Chansiri,
whose loans ran close to £60m, will be due payment in the region of £15m.
One supporter has handed over £1m in an interest-free loan
to cover funding shortfalls, ensuring all players and staff were paid their
November salaries a day early yesterday.
Other fans have also done their bit. Average
attendances in the Championship have stood at 29,385 since entering
administration last month, up from the average of 22,172 that had been at the
opening five league games of the season.
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