Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\nBy senior football news writer Matt Slater<\/p>\n
News that another English football team \u2014 one of the Premier League\u2019s founding members, no less \u2014 have entered administration should never be described as \u201cgood\u201d but, as administrations go, this one is at the better end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n
Before I explain why, it is important to acknowledge that administration is not a get out of jail free card for badly-run clubs. First, there is the obvious sporting penalty, which practically confirms relegation, but second, and more importantly, there are very likely to be job losses. Suppliers, local and national, will also take a big hit on any debts the club has run up with them.<\/p>\n
So, there will be pain and uncertainty while the administrators try to find a new owner for the club. But the very fact that we now have three people in charge whose only agenda is to rescue Sheffield Wednesday is why administration is the best possible outcome for the club today.<\/p>\n
Because that was not Chansiri\u2019s only motivation. He has spent over a year trying to find a rich idiot to massively overpay for the club so he can walk away from the damage he has caused with his \u201cmoney back\u201d. Rich idiots are clearly harder to find than he thought.<\/p>\n
If that is not better news enough, I am also as confident as I can be about these things that this will be a relatively straightforward administration, as Sheffield Wednesday are clearly one of the biggest clubs outside the Premier League and will now be available at a realistic price as nearly all of the club\u2019s debt, including Chansiri\u2019s, is unsecured. The Athletic is aware of several potential bidders who have been waiting for this moment for some time.<\/p>\n
The Thai claims he is owed more than \u00a3100million but he will do very well to see 25 per cent of that and is probably looking at far less.<\/p>\n
The appointment of Begbies Traynor is also encouraging as it is by far the most experienced insolvency firm in UK when it comes to football administrations. With no cash in the business to play with, it is basically backing itself to find a buyer quickly, with the buyer paying its costs. That should incentivise a clean and quick process.<\/p>\n
Wednesday situation highlights need for reform<\/strong><\/p>\nAnalysis by football finance writer Chris Weatherspoon<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s slump into administration is at once both shocking and not a surprise.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, Wednesday are one of England\u2019s great clubs, backed by large support. Yet today\u2019s news also marks the inevitable next stop for a club which has teetered on the financial edge for an age and where fans and owner are at war.<\/p>\n
In the nine full seasons for which we have financials since Chansiri took over in January 2015, Wednesday lost \u00a3121m, a figure which would be \u00a339m higher were it not for the club selling their Hillsborough home to another company owned by Chansiri in 2019 to help avoid a rules breach.<\/p>\n
The losses pre-date Chansiri. The last time Wednesday turned a profit without the aid of a stadium sale or a loan write-off was 2008. At last check, Chansiri had injected over \u00a3128m in funding; now, the money, or his appetite to provide it, has dried up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That is no defence of the chairman\u2019s conduct but does highlight the financial peril lurking below the bright lights of the Premier League. Wednesday are one of many Championship clubs to have racked up soaring losses during their time away from the top table \u2014 clubs who are inevitably reliant on owners footing the bill. When that stops, as it has at Hillsborough, chaos ensues.<\/p>\n
It is flippant to say Wednesday will probably be saved, but clubs tend to be and especially those with fanbases as large as theirs. But it is not a given.<\/p>\n
Even if this sorry saga ends in good news, it should serve as yet another warning English football needs to get its finances in order. New regulator chief David Kogan recently said the IFR would have the power to force unsuitable owners to sell the club, but that doesn\u2019t explain how bills would continue to be paid in the meantime.<\/p>\n
Without structural reform to help clubs move away from reliance on owner funding, miserable tales like Wednesday\u2019s will continue to unfold in English football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield Wednesday\u2019s perilous financial plight has worsened after being placed in administration by owner Dejphon Chansiri on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,12902,101,1620,21069,25711,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-526200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-championship","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-league-one","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-sheffield","15":"tag-sheffield-wednesday","16":"tag-sports-business","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115432831418887065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526200","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=526200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chansiri](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/dejphon-chansiri-scaled.jpg\")
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