Sheffield Wednesday entered administration on Friday in a move that will be a hammer blow to their chances of avoiding relegation to League One – but finally opened the door to a future away from hated owner Dejphon Chansiri.
Daily Mail Sport understands some staff at the Championship crisis club were left in tears after being informed of the development in a meeting at the Middlewood Road training ground on Friday morning.
The EFL confirmed an automatic 12-point penalty will be imposed on Henrik Pedersen’s threadbare squad, which was already rock bottom in the table with six points from 11 games ahead of Saturday’s clash against Oxford at Hillsborough.
While the sporting prospects are bleak in the immediate future, the move is sure to hasten the departure of Chansiri after a decade at the club. Begbies Traynor, Sheffield-based specialists in the recovery of companies, has been appointed the administrators.
Daily Mail Sport exclusively revealed last week that the club was facing a winding-up order over an unpaid tax bill, which is close to £1m and thought to relate to PAYE and VAT.
Wednesday, who have paid wages late in five of the past seven months, are currently under five embargoes with the EFL.
Fans of the club amplified their protests against Chansiri by staging a mass boycott at Hillsborough for the Championship game against Middlesbrough on Wednesday evening. Prior to match, the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters’ Trust projected a message onto the side of the stadium urging the owner to sell up.
A Trust statement on Friday read: ‘Today marks one of the most bittersweet days in our club’s proud 158-year history.
‘Entering administration was the inevitable outcome of years of financial mismanagement, a lack of accountability and repeated failures to engage credible buyers.
A Trust statement on Friday read: ‘Today marks one of the most bittersweet days in our club’s proud 158-year history.
‘Administration is not something to be celebrated. It needn’t have ended this way. But we are overjoyed to have Dejphon Chansiri out of our club for good.
‘Administration represents a necessary turning point. With the club now totally out of Chansiri’s hands, this may be the first step to getting our Wednesday back.
‘Once Hillsborough is recovered from his ownership, Chansiri’s influence will finally be consigned to history, a regrettable chapter in Sheffield Wednesday’s long history.’
Chansiri’s ownership of the club has long been held up as a case study into why football needed an independent regulator – a position now filled by David Kogan.
Responding to the developments at Wednesday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: ‘For the fans, staff and players of Sheffield Wednesday this is an extremely worrying situation.
‘Situations like this are exactly why this government set up the new independent football regulator. Owners should be good custodians who act with their club’s best interests in mind and clearly, in this instance, that has not been the case.
‘We are working quickly to give the Regulator the powers it needs so it can better secure the future of football clubs and ensure they remain at the heart of their communities.’
