{"id":786385,"date":"2026-02-24T18:43:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/786385\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:43:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:43:29","slug":"journalist-confirms-mike-ashleys-sheffield-wednesday-takeover-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/786385\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist confirms Mike Ashley&#8217;s Sheffield Wednesday takeover stance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Sheffield Wednesday takeover saga continues to rumble on, with no clear date in sight for a potential end to it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now confirmed as a League One club for the 2026-27 season, with their squad depth, lack of funds and 18 points-worth of deductions across the current campaign all contributing to it, the <a href=\"https:\/\/footballleagueworld.co.uk\/tag\/sheffield-wednesday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Owls<\/a> will soon be looking ahead to the future, but whether they get new owners anytime soon is still a mystery.<\/p>\n<p>On Christmas Eve, it was revealed that a preferred bidder had been selected just two months into the administration process by Begbies Traynor, with Stanmore-born entrepreneur and poker player James Bord soon revealed as the figurehead behind the move to try and save the South Yorkshire outfit.<\/p>\n<p>Two whole months have passed though, and the process is still ongoing. Bord and his financial partners &#8211; Felix Roemer and Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamil &#8211; haven&#8217;t been approved by the EFL as of yet, and there appears to be no rush to push through a takeover deal until the authorities are satisfied the trio are fit and proper.<\/p>\n<p>                        Mike Ashley update emerges over Sheffield Wednesday takeover stance<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mike Ashley\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771958608_660_copy-of-1920x1080-2-21.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771958608_660_copy-of-1920x1080-2-21.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There is no actual guarantee that Bord will become Wednesday&#8217;s new owner, although he put the best bid on the table with a non-refundable deposit, and one name continues to lurk with interest in case his attempts to purchase the Owls falters.<\/p>\n<p>That man is Mike Ashley, who has been out of football since 2021, when he sold Newcastle United to Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Public Investment Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/calendar\/2025-12-19\/mike-ashley-sole-remaining-bidder-to-buy-sheffield-wednesday\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">suggested<\/a> prior to Bord becoming the preferred bidder that Ashley&#8217;s offer, if pushed through, would&#8217;ve seen Wednesday likely deducted 15 points next season due to it not meeting the club&#8217;s \u00a330 million debt obligations &#8211; only for Bord&#8217;s offer to exceed it.<\/p>\n<p>In a fresh update though, talkSPORT&#8217;s Alex Crook has <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/football\/4005082\/transfer-news-newcastle-liverpool-gordon-man-utd-onana-iraola\/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=no\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">revealed<\/a> that Walsall-born businessman Ashley is &#8216;waiting in the wings&#8217; to make a renewed offer for the club, should Bord&#8217;s attempts end up falling flat.<\/p>\n<p>Ashley&#8217;s most recent football venture came when purchasing the CBS Arena complex in November 2022, with Coventry City&#8217;s future at the stadium placed into doubt for a short period of time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Would Mike Ashley make a good owner for Sheffield Wednesday? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A new rent deal was agreed however, and then in August 2025 the Sky Blues bought the complex from Ashley outfit, where he made a <a href=\"https:\/\/footballleagueworld.co.uk\/how-much-profit-mike-ashley-made-on-coventry-city-stadium-sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u00a333.8 million profit<\/a>, but his bid for Sheffield Wednesday after that ultimately wasn&#8217;t enough to make him the preferred bidder.<\/p>\n<p>                        If James Bord takeover doesn&#8217;t materialise, Mike Ashley would not be the worst option for Sheffield Wednesday<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"928\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771958609_774_copy-of-1920x1080-4-6.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771958609_774_copy-of-1920x1080-4-6.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s still plenty of unknowns regarding the Bord takeover bid &#8211; there seems to be confidence that it will get done eventually, but given the fact the EFL still haven&#8217;t approved him, and a former business partner is <a href=\"https:\/\/footballleagueworld.co.uk\/sheffield-wednesday-prospective-owner-james-bord-sued\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">suing him<\/a>, there has to be an element of doubt over it.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear that Bord has put his money down in the form of a non-refundable deposit and is helping to fund the Owls going forward whilst still not having control, but the clubs he&#8217;s been involved at, like Dunfermline Athletic and Cordoba, are somewhat small-fry compared to what Ashley has been involved in at Newcastle.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s not much love lost for Ashley on Tyneside, despite being a childhood Newcastle supporter, but there&#8217;s not much to argue about his business credentials, especially away from football &#8211; should there be no other creditable options, then the 61-year-old would be a sensible choice, even if the club potentially have to take a 15-point hit next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sheffield Wednesday takeover saga continues to rumble on, with no clear date in sight for a potential&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":["post-786385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-sheffield","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116127086834847184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786385","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=786385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}