2 August 2025, 10:55 | Updated: 2 August 2025, 10:59<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sheffield Wednesday fans hold up poster in a protest to Dejphon Chansir during the Sky Bet Championship match Leeds United vs Sheffield Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Picture:
\nAlamy<\/p>\n
I never wanted to write this article. But after a summer of silence, crisis, and chaos, I no longer have a choice.\n<\/p>\n
The football club I love\u2014have followed all my life\u2014is imploding. Every day brings more bad news about Sheffield Wednesday, and honestly, I can\u2019t say where this ends.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been dragged into freefall because of the intransigence and negligence of one man.<\/p>\n
More on Dejphon Chansiri later.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a Wednesday fan all my life. Unlike some, I can\u2019t recall my first match at Hillsborough, but I do remember a promotion clash with Chelsea in the early ’80s.<\/p>\n
I fell in love instantly. There\u2019s an old saying among Wednesday fans: \u201cYou don\u2019t choose Wednesday. The club chooses you.\u201d<\/p>\n
And The Owls certainly got their talons into me. Over the past 40 years, I\u2019ve spent a small fortune and clocked up thousands of miles watching this team. Along the way, I\u2019ve met brilliant, funny, and loyal people\u2014friends for life.<\/p>\n
Just before COVID, I took my son to his first game. He\u2019s ten now. We both have season tickets. We should be excited for the season ahead.<\/p>\n
Because football isn\u2019t just about what happens on the pitch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the memories\u2014those long train rides full of laughs, the goosebumps as you climb the steps to your seat, the joy of buying your kid a pre-match hot dog from your favourite stand. And that spine-tingling moment when 30,000 voices join in for \u201cHi Ho Sheffield Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this summer has been nothing short of disastrous.<\/p>\n
The club is under multiple transfer embargoes for breaching financial regulations. Players and staff have walked out after not being paid. Hillsborough\u2019s North Stand is closed due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n
And through it all, we\u2019ve heard nothing meaningful from Chansiri. Instead, he appears to have been enjoying a family holiday in Venice.<\/p>\n
He claims he’s willing to sell\u2014but turned down a \u00a340 million offer earlier this summer. Meanwhile, the damage keeps piling up.<\/p>\n
Chansiri\u2014whose family controls Thai Union Group, which owns seafood brands like John West\u2014has been widely criticised for his mismanagement of the club.<\/p>\n
Local MP Clive Betts put it plainly: \u201cThis is just the most recent issue in a host of problems he has brought and failed to recognise and address. Chansiri clearly has no idea what he is doing with the club and should just move on and sell to an owner that will actually care about the club and its fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what now? And why should anyone who doesn\u2019t support Sheffield Wednesday care?<\/p>\n
Because this is bigger than one club.<\/p>\n
This is about right and wrong. About people, communities, jobs, and a passion passed down through generations.<\/p>\n
A football club isn\u2019t just the toy of a careless, out-of-his-depth owner. And yet, during the worst crisis of his tenure, Chansiri has mostly remained silent\u2014except for a single public statement in which he lashed out at a potential buyer.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s next for this proud old club, founded in 1867?<\/p>\n
The football authorities haven\u2019t helped. Only today did the EFL finally acknowledge that Wednesday may not be able to fulfil its fixtures.<\/p>\n
The newly formed football regulator remains underpowered and inexperienced. We fans are left to fend for ourselves.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been hammered. We\u2019ve been ignored. And no one understands why Chansiri hasn\u2019t sold, especially when he clearly can\u2019t afford to keep the club running.<\/p>\n
So who will step in?<\/p>\n
Who will help the local businesses that depend on matchdays to stay afloat?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become clear that no cavalry is coming. It\u2019s down to us, the fans. We\u2019ve become a case study in how easily a club can be driven into the ground by a negligent owner.<\/p>\n
We are fighting for our club.<\/p>\n
And if Wednesday is to have a future, we\u2019ll need to live up to the club\u2019s own motto: \u201cWisdom and Courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re going to need both in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
________________<\/strong><\/p>\n LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.<\/strong><\/p>\n The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.<\/strong><\/p>\n To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 August 2025, 10:55 | Updated: 2 August 2025, 10:59 Sheffield Wednesday fans hold up poster in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-311843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-sheffield","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114959045633688717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311843","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=311843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}