Sheffield Wednesday is in administration, but fans are celebrating

A week has passed since Sheffield Wednesday were placed into administration by owner Dejphon Chansiri.

So what? This has put a great community institution, a founding member of both the Football League and Premier League, in limbo. Formed in 1867, Sheffield Wednesday

• are one of the oldest football clubs in the world;
• regularly attract upwards of 25,000 home fans; and
• have been a pillar of English football’s past and present.

State of play. Now bottom of the Championship having been deducted 12 points for entering administration, Sheffield Wednesday sold the majority of their best players at a cut price this summer. Being unable to sustain themselves is deeply concerning, but this is more about the whims of an owner than wider systemic failings.

Fishy. Chansiri, scion of the world’s largest canned tuna producer, bought Wednesday in 2015 for £30 million. Although things started well on the pitch, the club received a six-point deduction for breaching financial rules in 2020 and were relegated to League One.

Offside. Promoted back to the second tier in 2023, Chansiri stopped investing – calling fans “selfish” and citing cashflow issues – but reportedly refused to sell for less than £100 million.

Escalation. Sheffield Wednesday were given five sanctions this summer and thought to be facing a winding-up petition over roughly a million pounds in HMRC debt. But last week Chansiri pre-emptively brought in administrators from Begbies Traynor, having missed payroll in five of the past seven months.

Reclaimed. The news was largely met with joy as it has ended Chansiri’s ownership. Within hours of the announcement, more than 290,000 people watched a livestream of volunteers stripping white seats spelling his name from Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium.

Administrators also plan to auction two golden elephants, symbols of good luck in Thai culture that had become a white elephant to fans, installed by Chansiri. A boycott meant 7,081 fans attended the final match before Chansiri’s exit, but 27,261 watched them last Saturday.

No way home. Chansiri bought Hillsborough in July 2019 and the prospect of being separated from the ground, which has been their home for 136 years, terrifies fans. But Hillsborough is also in administration and controlled by Begbies, so a package sale of the club and stadium is the most likely outcome.

By the numbers:

£200,000 – how much fans have spent at the club shop since the administration announcement, meaning staff should be paid on time today

£100 – the amount Chansiri sought from 20,000 fans in 2023 to drum up £2 million to settle an HMRC bill

£28.5 million – the maximum Chansiri would earn from any sale. He is owed roughly £115 million by the club, but is only eligible to recoup 25p for every pound under EFL rules

Under control. Lisa Nandy said that the plight of Sheffield Wednesday is “exactly why this government set up the new independent football regulator”. A chair was confirmed three weeks ago, and the regulator has worked with the EFL around the club’s administration. It is not expected to have full powers until 2027/28, but these will include mandating that clubs have sufficient funding to cover running costs and, in extreme cases, forcing owners to sell.

Unfit and improper? It is highly unlikely the regulator would have stopped Chansiri’s initial purchase. He has, after all, invested more than £150 million into the club and took them within one match of the Premier League in 2016. The question is whether it would have intervened earlier in the decline and stopped it getting to this point.

What’s more… Relegation to League One is all but inevitable, as is new ownership. Begbies said they have received “four or five” serious bids, primarily British and American, and a call from someone with a UK phone number claiming to be a sheikh. Further points deductions are highly likely, but fans will consider this a small price to pay for escaping Chansiri.

Photograph by Cameron Smith/Getty Images.