EFL

Sheffield Wednesday fans took to the field on Saturday in protest at the ownership of club Chairman Dejphon Chansiri as they slumped to a 5-0 defeat to Coventry. Whilst Wrexham and Birmingham City are living the dream after respective big money American takeovers the financial situation that has plighted Sheffield Wednesday for years has caused fans to have enough of the owner Dejphon Chansiri who seems to be in no rush to sell the club. Thai businessman took over the club in 2014 and set lofty goals of reaching the promised land of the Premier League. Whilst early on in his tenure this looked a possibly as they narrowly lost the 2016 playoff final to Hull City before succumbing to Huddersfield at the semi-final stage the following season what has proceeded at the Hillsborough club has sent shockwaves through English football. In July 2020 the club were hit with a points deduction for breaking the EFL spending rules being deducted 12 points reduced to 6 on appeal. This sparked the catalyst of what has been a turbulent 5 years for Wednesday supporters. Relegated to League 1 and taking two seasons to return to the Championship the fans were unhappy with the way Chansiri was running the club. In a bombshell statement Chansiri stated he was putting no more money into the club citing his unhappiness with the treatment towards him and demanding the fans pay the outstanding amount owed by the club. Since this statement the club has been put under two registration embargo for failing to pay HMRC. Earlier this summer the north stand at Hillsborough was condemned by the city council and forced to close with the structure being deemed unsafe however, this was later lifted. On top of this earlier this month it was revealed that the players wages were to be payed late the 5th time this has happened in only 7 months with it being claimed this is due to an issue with money owned to Chansiri’s other businesses. The club face further sanctions from the EFL as they are already under a transfer embargo until the end of 2026. With the club looking on the brink of insolvency and Chansiri showing no signs of selling it begs the question what can the EFL do? In the last 5 years there have been financial issues at Wigan, Bury, Derby, Torquay, Hull City, Bolton, Reading, Carlisle and Morecambe with Bury ceasing to trade as a football club due to their perilous situation. The EFL do have measures in place to assess new owners by way of a fit and proper person tests can they do more when owners are essentially running clubs into the ground. The Covid Pandemic has played a part in these issues the power to remove owners who are running clubs unsustainably or holding them to ransom is something that needs looked at. Furthermore punishing clubs for their breaches of rules in the way of points deductions is a counter productive measure. For clubs to find themselves on minus points increasing the risk of relegation in turn causing more financial losses is not the way forward. The future of one of English Football’s most historic and well known clubs in doubt and the situation showing no immediate signs of improving is it time for the powers govern the game to step in and save the club from potential collapse.