{"id":333688,"date":"2025-08-10T17:33:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333688\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T17:33:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T17:33:27","slug":"safety-issue-denies-sheffield-wednesday-fans-entry-into-king-power-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333688\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety issue denies Sheffield Wednesday fans entry into King Power Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Sheffield Wednesday fans were denied entry into the King Power Stadium for their clash with Leicester.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Owls are facing the freshly relegated outfit in their opening match of the Championship season on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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

4<\/p>\n

The visiting supporters boycotted the first five minutes of their season openerCredit: Getty\"Thousands<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Thousands of Wednesday fans were denied entry prior to kick-off against LeicesterCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Visiting supporters had planned several protests against owner Dejphon Chansiri both before and during the match.<\/p>\n

Amongst them was not taking their seats for the first five minutes of the match.<\/p>\n

However, this caused a safety issue with only 1,000 fans permitted on the concourse at a time.<\/p>\n

As a result, 1,000 supporters were allowed into the stadium, with the remaining 2,000 held outside until the end of the protest.<\/p>\n

Following the first five minutes, Wednesday fans began to take their seats in the away end.<\/p>\n

They received a standing ovation from the home Foxes fans inside the King Power Stadium in response to their efforts.<\/p>\n

Having taken their seats, Wednesday fans were given a reason to celebrate in the 26th minute as they took the lead through Nathaniel Chalobah.<\/p>\n

Their players ran the length of the pitch in response to celebrate in front of the travelling supporters.<\/p>\n

The boycott followed the unfurling of a banner in the away end prior to kick-off directed at Chansiri.<\/p>\n

Across the banner read the message: \u201cSWFC for sale – enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

4<\/p>\n

A banner was flown over the stadium as part of the Wednesday fans’ protestsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a plane flew over the stadium with a banner reading: \u201cDejphon Chansiri out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s owner has overseen a chaotic summer at Hillsborough, with the club left with just 17 senior players prior to their league opener.<\/p>\n

Players and staff were finally paid their July wages ahead of the match, having not been paid on time for the fourth time in five months.<\/p>\n

It followed the cancellation of their pre-season friendly<\/a> against Burnley last weekend after players and staff refused to fulfil the fixture.<\/p>\n

Manager Danny Rohl also left the club, who were the subject of three EFL embargos<\/a> due to unpaid wages, transfer fees and money owed to HMRC.<\/p>\n

The North Stand at Hillsborough is currently closed by Sheffield City Council due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n

Sheffield Wednesday captain Barry Bannan makes strike decision days before Championship opener<\/p>\n

Chansiri, who bought Wednesday in 2015, has stated his intention to sell the club but has yet to agree a deal with a prospective buyer.<\/p>\n

Former Crystal Palace majority shareholder John Textor has shown an interest<\/a> in buying the crisis club.<\/p>\n

The American businessman told the Sheffield Star, per PA news agency: “It’s true that I am looking for a traditional English club to buy, or with which I can partner\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have not spoken with anybody at Sheffield Wednesday yet and I am monitoring the situation, hoping to better understand it.<\/p>\n

“I’m definitely interested. It’s a lot to solve in a short amount of time with regards to taking advantage of the transfer window but it’s definitely a club and community I would like to help.<\/p>\n

“I often cite [Wednesday] as an example of what’s wrong with football today.<\/p>\n

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

4<\/p>\n

Chansiri has failed to pay his players on time four times in the last five monthsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“The lack of parity, because of the influence of money and I wish there was a system where the Sheffield Wednesdays of the world could be champions again.”<\/p>\n

Textor sold his stake in Palace<\/a> to New York Jets co-owner Woody Johnson in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Sheffield Wednesday fans were denied entry into the King Power Stadium for their clash with Leicester.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,64536,12032,393,4884,200,1620,21069,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-333688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dejphon-chansiri","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\/115005674393235514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333688","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=333688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}