LONDON \u2014 One of the world\u2019s oldest soccer teams is in big trouble.<\/p>\n
When Sheffield Wednesday FC kicks off the new season on Sunday \u2014 away at Leicester City in the Championship, the second tier of British soccer \u2014 more than 3,000 traveling fans will not take their seats to cheer on their beloved team, known as the Owls.<\/p>\n
Instead, they will hold a five-minute protest<\/a> outside Leicester\u2019s King Power Stadium against one man: Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, Wednesday\u2019s owner and the focal point of a growing crisis that may threaten its very existence.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s financial problems are mounting, and unsuccessful attempts to sell it have dominated local sports media and online forums for months \u2014 and the crisis has much wider implications for the health of English soccer away from the glitzy riches of Liverpool and Manchester City.<\/p>\n The problem is so acute that the British government has passed a new law that will launch a football regulator to police the buying and selling of teams and make sure owners are \u201cfit and proper.\u201d<\/p>\n For Wednesday, founded in 1867, that could be too little, too late.<\/p>\n Some teams have bad offseasons, but this summer has seen Wednesday set new levels of chaos: Players and staff have not been paid on time in four of the last five months. As a result, there\u2019s a transfer embargo banning the club from buying new players until January 2027 \u2014 even if it could afford them.<\/p>\n At least 15 players have left on free transfers or for a fraction of their market value this summer, leaving barely enough players to fill a match day squad of 11 starters and up to nine substitutes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s becoming a soap opera,\u201d said Dan Fudge, who co-hosts the popular podcast \u201cThe Wednesday Week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUsually, as podcasters, we\u2019re scratching for content to talk about during the summer,\u201d Fudge said, \u201cbut we seem to have had a new timeline of terror every single week to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n The list of mishaps goes on. Talented young head coach Danny Rohl, a charismatic and cerebral German touted for big success in major European leagues, left by mutual agreement.<\/p>\n The famous old Hillsborough Stadium is literally falling apart \u2014 Sheffield City Council refused to grant a safety license for the vast 9,000-seat North Stand due to concerns of uncovering wiring and cracks in the terrace.<\/p>\n The club said in a statement this week it was working to fix this and would seek to place season ticket holders elsewhere if it was still shut by the first home game on Aug. 16. A disabled fan whose accessible seat is in the North Stand broke down in tears this week when telling the BBC<\/a> what effect the crisis is having on him.<\/p>\n The club did not respond to NBC News\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n Chansiri says he wants to sell, but no one so far has met his valuation for the club, which football finance experts say is too high. The owner is widely reported to have offered the club for 100 million pounds ($134 million). Kieran Maguire, a leading British football finance expert and commentator, puts the real value at 40 million pounds ($53 million), but Chansiri said in June<\/a> that he rejected an offer at this price from a U.S.-based consortium.<\/p>\n Maguire said it was unlikely Wednesday would go bust entirely, but he said that in any case the team would almost certainly be relegated to the league below and face a very tough season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not malicious in the sense that he doesn\u2019t want to destroy the football club, but he\u2019s very naive, has no knowledge of the industry,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n English football culture is one of spending. This summer alone, the 20 Premier League teams have spent around 1.8 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) on transfer fees, with reigning champions Liverpool splashing out 252 million pounds ($335 million).<\/p>\n And the contrast between the top and the rest of the football pyramid system is stark.<\/p>\n Between them, the Premier League clubs made more than 6 billion pounds ($8 billion) in revenue in the 2024-25 season, an increase of 36% from the previous year, according to consultancy firm Deloitte.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, every single team in the Championship, the fifth-most attended league in Europe, made an operating loss<\/a> in the same period for the second season in a row.<\/p>\n There is money from TV, sponsorship, player sales and match day revenue, but with huge wage bills, clubs are left to rely on player sales and, if they\u2019re lucky, wealthy benefactors to inject cash.<\/p>\n