One hundred and two days after Chansiri departed, Sheffield Wednesday are still in administration and serious questions are being asked about the conduct of the chief administrator, Kris Wigfield, and the suitability of the consortium chosen to take over, which features the former professional gambler James Bord.
A fire sale of players, including the popular captain, Barry Bannan, plus a run of 25 matches without victory has further demoralised fans, many of whom have stopped attending games.
The administrators believed that they could get more than £30 million for Wednesday, which caused many prospective buyers who valued the club at around £20mt to back out, but Bord’s bid — believed to be worth about £32.5 million — blew everyone else out of the water and crucially, it was high enough to pay off the club’s creditors (namely Chansiri, who is set to receive £15 million from the sale if it goes through) and guarantee that the team will not start next season on minus-15 points.
That is only if Bord and his consortium, which also contains the 31-year-old German entrepreneur Felix Römer and Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamil, who is said to be a member of the Jordanian royal family, pass the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test. If the EFL do not come to a decision by May, the new independent regulator will step in.
The Bord consortium made a non-refundable cash injection of £2.5million into Wednesday after being named the preferred bidder to help keep the club afloat. With fewer tickets being bought and merchandise sales falling after that initial peak in October, little money is coming into the club.
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