SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY fans may be happy that the club’s owner Dejphon Chansiri is on his way out, but the real challenge is yet to come. One of the biggest names in English football could be relegated to League One at the end of the season, and there is still the question of who will take over the club once the administration is sorted. The fans who came to Hillsborough for their last match and emptied the club shop in the process do not deserve the mismanagement of their club, the city of Sheffield does not need it and the English game really needs to find a solution to the continued neglect of fine old sporting institutions.
Wednesday is an issue that has been around for a while, so it’s not a huge surprise; some might think that governance was an inevitable outcome. But it is a recurring problem in English football that confirms that football clubs are vulnerable entities with few cash buffers. There have been many examples in recent years of clubs approaching the brink: Bury, Luton Town, Southend United, Morecambe, Derby County, Coventry City, the list goes on. A financial crisis seems to be part of the natural cycle for lower league clubs, but there is also a growing trend of club owners becoming agitated, despised and resented due to money problems, a lack of transparency and poor communication.
Wednesday was accused of breaching the EFL’s financial rules, but failure to pay wages leaves clubs open to all kinds of problems. Owing money to HMRC is not only malpractice, it also invites criticism that a club is cheating taxpayers and may leave a whole group of people wondering whether it is right to be lenient towards a football club that appeals to a relatively small percentage of the population.
Chansiri has not only put the club under management, he has done the same with the company that owns Hillsborough, once one of the game’s stately homes. Due to safety concerns, the stadium’s capacity has been reduced, but there is still plenty of room as the club currently averages just over 20,000. It is entirely realistic that crowds will increase as the club deals with the current crisis, but you have to go back to 1968 for the last time. Wednesday’s home games averaged 30,000. Since 2020, there has been an average of about 27,000.
Wednesday is – just like neighboring country United – an underperforming club. Their honor roll could be scribbled on the back of a cigarette pack. Four times league champions, the last time in 1930, and three times FA Cup winners, with one Football League Cup in 1991. A club of Wednesday’s size could have a more illustrious post-war history. Despite this lack of performance, the directors expect significant interest in the club, certainly more than when Chansiri invited offers. He wanted £100 million and rejected an offer of £60 million, which now looks like a bad thing as under standard administration practices he can only receive £28 million if the money doesn’t run out by the time it reaches the bottom of the ledger. Chansiri’s £100m loans are apparently unsecured.
Wednesday has made a loss for the past five reported seasons, totaling £74m through 2023-2024. The 2025-2026 season will be their third season in the Championship since winning promotion from League One in 2023. Like many second-tier clubs, they have spent too much money on wages, although in 2023-24 their wage-to-income ratio of 83% was lower than a few years earlier, when it peaked at 209%.
Twenty years ago, most football fans would have classed Wednesday as a Premier League club in all but name, but they were last in the top flight in 2000 and have spent just eight seasons at that level. Will they ever return? Much depends on how well financed the new owner will be, but it will also take time and patience. There is potential to attract a larger audience and allow the club to generate more income than the £26m earned in 2023-2024. But again: Wednesday’s sad story reminds us of the fragile existence of football companies. There are lessons to be learned for every club, although that is little consolation to those who really care about Sheffield Wednesday.
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Game of the People was founded in 2012 and is ranked among the 100 best football websites by various sources. The site consistently wins awards for its work, across a wide range of topics. View all posts by Neil Fredrik Jensen
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