What has happened, why has it happened and what happens now – and could a regulator have prevented this?
The owner of Sheffield Wednesday, Dejphon Chansiri, has placed the club into administration. He has done the same with the company that owns Hillsborough, Wednesday’s stadium. As a result, administrators have taken over the day-to-day running of one of England’s historic clubs, with a view to stabilising financial performance and, ultimately, finding a new owner. Going into administration is a measure of last resort for any struggling business and carries sanctions in English football. Sheffield Wednesday have been docked 12 points by the EFL, leaving them adrift at the bottom of the Championship on -6 points, 13 behind Blackburn Rovers, the next side in the table.
Chansiri has placed the club into administration because he has run out of money, but the story of how Wednesday got to this point is long and painful. The Thai businessman, whose family control one of the world’s largest producers of canned tuna, bought Wednesday for a reported £30m in 2015. He went on to raise ticket prices, churn through managers and announce sponsors that were not commercially active. The EFL first issued Chansiri with a disciplinary charge over Wednesday’s accounts in 2019, but in 2020 the club received a 12-point deduction over accounting relating to the sale of Hillsborough to Chansiri’s Sheffield 3 business. Those 12 points were reduced to six on appeal, but relegation to League One followed. The Owls returned to the Championship in 2023 and were immediately placed under transfer embargo on account of money being owed to HMRC, with the same punishment imposed again the following season. This summer, the club were hit with five sanctions, three of which related to unpaid taxes, wages and transfer fees and led to a ban on recruitment for three transfer windows. This month reports began to circulate that HMRC was soon to serve Wednesday with a winding-up petition over an estimated £1m owed by Chansiri, but the owner has pre-empted such a move, requesting administration.
