{"id":307444,"date":"2025-07-31T20:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307444\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:24:21","slug":"sheffield-wednesdays-season-opener-could-be-called-off-as-players-refuse-to-play-in-friendly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307444\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield Wednesday’s season opener could be called off as players refuse to play in friendly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheffield Wednesday’s players have refused to play in a friendly against Burnley this weekend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Owls were scheduled to face Premier League<\/a> opposition in a behind-closed-doors fixture on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Wednesday's<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s players have boycotted their friendly against Burnley on SaturdayCredit: Getty\"Owner<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Owner Dejphon Chansiri failed to pay his players and coaching staff on time this weekCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

However, the contest has been cancelled after players and coaching staff boycotted the match after not receiving their July wages on time.<\/p>\n

Players were informed this week that their wages would be delayed for the third month in a row and fourth time since March.<\/p>\n

It comes as Wednesday remain under an EFL transfer embargo<\/a> for unpaid transfer fees.<\/p>\n

Owner Dejphon Chansiri is understood to be trying to sell the troubled Championship side.<\/p>\n

There are no growing concerns within the EFL over whether the Owls will be able to fulfil their season opener.<\/p>\n

The club are set to visit Leicester at the King Power Stadium in less than two weeks on August 10.<\/p>\n

Who is Sheffield Wednesday’s manager?<\/p>\n

Former manager Danny Rohl left Hillsborough by mutual consent<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He has since been replaced by his assistant manager Henrik Pedersen, who signed a contract extension earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Following his appointment, Pedersen explained: “Is this going to be easy? No!<\/p>\n

“We are maybe in ‘rough waters’ at the moment but as a proud Dane I can tell you that like our Viking ancestors, stormy seas don’t bother us too much.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The EFL are concerned the Owls will be unable to fulfil their Championship openerCredit: Getty\"Pedersen<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Pedersen has inherited a first-team squad made up of just 15 playersCredit: Rex<\/p>\n

“You have to get used to it, to weather the storm to get to calmer waters.<\/p>\n

“To the fans, I ask that we stick together. At times we may need to be a little patient as we strive to grow.<\/p>\n

“We all care deeply and will do all we can to bring the great times back to Hillsborough. I only ask that you get behind your team.”<\/p>\n

With just 10 days until their clash with the Foxes, there are just eight players aged over 25 at the club.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the senior squad currently consists of just 15 players, one of which is a goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Wednesday have also been blocked from using the North Stand at Hillsborough by Sheffield City Council due to concerns over its structural integrity.<\/p>\n

What is going on at Morecambe and Sheffield Wednesday? Sheffield Wednesday’s financial problems<\/p>\n

Since Chansiri’s takeover in 2015, Wednesday have been sanctioned on multiple occasions due to their finances.<\/p>\n

A transfer embargo in 2017 for breaching profit and sustainability rules was followed by a points deduction ahead of the 2020\/21 campaign for financial breaches.<\/p>\n

Another embargo followed for late payments to staff and players last year before the current sanctions were imposed.<\/p>\n

As a result of those restrictions, the Owls are yet to make any new signings this summer.<\/p>\n

However, 14 players have departed with the majority having done so after their contracts expired or they were terminated by mutual consent.<\/p>\n

Winger Djeidi Gassama was sold to Rangers<\/a> in the only deal which involved a fee.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Josh Windass ripped up his deal to move to Wrexham<\/a> and club captain Barry Bannan’s contract expired at the end of June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield Wednesday’s players have refused to play in a friendly against Burnley this weekend. The Owls were scheduled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9029,12032,393,4884,200,1620,21069,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-307444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-burnley","10":"tag-efl-championship","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-leicester-city","14":"tag-sheffield","15":"tag-sheffield-wednesday","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114949722298705068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}