{"id":653210,"date":"2025-12-25T00:22:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653210\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T00:22:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T00:22:21","slug":"consortium-led-by-james-bord-selected-as-sheffield-wednesday-preferred-bidder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653210\/","title":{"rendered":"Consortium led by James Bord selected as Sheffield Wednesday preferred bidder"},"content":{"rendered":"

A consortium led by James Bord, owner of Scottish club Dunfermline Athletic, has been named as the preferred bidder to purchase Championship club Sheffield Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Bord, 44, was selected over a group led by the Chicago-based Storch family and former Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.<\/p>\n

Wednesday were placed in administration by their owner, Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, on October 24, following months of steady decline.<\/p>\n

The club confirmed earlier on Wednesday that administrators, Manchester-based firm Begbies Traynor, intended to grant preferred bidder status to a consortium following the conclusion of the initial bidding process.<\/p>\n

Any takeover will have to be approved by the EFL and pass the owners\u2019 and directors\u2019 test. There is no timescale for the process.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a>, joint administrator Paul Stanley said: \u201cFrom a financial perspective, the proposed financial offer from the preferred bidder provides certainty for the club. The consortium we intend to progress with has submitted the strongest overall proposal for the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes: A fully funded offer, clear financial assurances to support the club\u2019s trading requirements, a structure that allows all creditor obligations to be dealt with in accordance with EFL rules, meaning no further sporting sanctions are anticipated as part of the transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bord\u2019s camp declined to comment when contacted by\u00a0The Athletic.<\/p>\n

Bord is a former professional poker player who founded his own consultancy called Short Circuit Science in 2016, which focuses on climate change, pharmaceuticals and sport. Short Circuit have advised Wednesday\u2019s rivals Sheffield United and Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n

The concept of football ownership is not new to Bord. He was part of a group of U.S.-based investors who purchased a 37 per cent stake in Spanish second-tier team Cordoba last year and then bought a 25 per cent share of Bulgarian side Septemvri Sofia, before taking over Dunfermline in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought Dunfermline because I love the underdog,\u201d Bord told\u00a0The Athletic earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambition is to bring back some of their history but also to change the atmosphere at the club. Optimism. They are a very passionate fanbase that has suffered enough pain and we\u2019d like to bring them some joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunfermline are currently sixth in the 10-team Scottish Championship. Among the moves made this year former Celtic boss Neil Lennon was hired as manager and former Celtic, Southampton and Tottenham midfielder Victor Wanyama was signed on a short-term contract.<\/p>\n

Begbies Traynor were appointed by Chansiri after the club failed to pay wages on time in five of the six previous months prior to entering administration and had been served a winding-up petition from HMRC, relating to unpaid taxes which totaled \u00a31million ($1.33m).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Wednesday fans protest against Chansiri in January (George Wood\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wednesday have been deducted 18 points as a result of their financial regulation breaches and are on -9 points at the bottom of the Championship, 30 points from safety and with just one win in their 21 games.<\/p>\n

If Bord\u2019s consortium are unwilling to pay off all of the club\u2019s secured debt and a quarter of its unsecured debt, Wednesday will be served with a 15-point penalty next season, when they will almost certainly be in League One.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s accounts indicate that in the region of \u00a3115m is owed to Chansiri in the form of loans. His legal team began a search process at the end of last season which failed to secure new ownership.<\/p>\n

The EFL imposed an embargo on Wednesday after breaching several regulations relating to payments to HMRC, football creditors and a another club.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s first game after being placed in administration was a home fixture against Oxford United on October 25. Crowd numbers at Hillsborough had been low throughout the season though 27,261 were in attendance for the 2-1 defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A consortium led by James Bord, owner of Scottish club Dunfermline Athletic, has been named as the preferred…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,9030,393,4884,12902,1620,21069,25711,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-653210","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-sheffield","14":"tag-sheffield-wednesday","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115777357416793822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653210","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=653210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}