Next Sheffield Wednesday owner facing £4m bill due to Dejphon Chansiri financial crisis

Sheffield Wednesday have over £4 million of football debts that need to be cleared immediately, and the prospective new owner of the Owls will have to cover the footfall of that.

To say that the Owls have already had a very difficult summer would be something of an understatement.

After finishing last season in 12th place in the Championship, the club have been placed under transfer embargo, while the position of head coach Danny Rohl has been fraught and players have handed in their notice to leave the club due to the late and non-payment of wages.

With patience having run out on all sides, owner Dejphon Chansiri has put the club up for sale, and there is considerable interest in buying the club, who will be celebrating their 150th anniversary in two years’ time.

But new revelations are demonstrating how expensive a business getting the club will be for any new owner.

Sheffield Wednesday have over £4 million of football debts that need to be cleared immediately

Journalist Alan Nixon has reported on the extent of the problems that would be facing any new Wednesday owners in this respect, who will be expected to foot the bills that are overdue.

The club owes £2.2 million in tax to HMRC, as well as £1.6 million in outstanding player wages for the months of May and June, with July’s wages also approaching at the end of the month.

As well as that, the club also have payments due to Southampton and Brighton over the loans of Shea Charles and James Beadle, while two Championship clubs, Hull City and Norwich City, are also owed smaller amounts.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Wednesday also owe back wages to other staff members, while Danny Rohl went unpaid in June as well, with a dispute over his pay due to him not returning to the club – something which he has now seemingly u-turned on.

It’s confirmed that Chansiri is hoping that the sales of Djeidi Gassama to Rangers and Anthony Musaba to Turkish side Samsunspor will help to balance the books, with the latter already confirmed, but the former’s switch to Ibrox has seemingly stalled on the end of the Owls, who still need to sign off on the transfer.

There’s been a “scramble” to register an interest in Wednesday, but fixing them will be expensive

News broke at the end of last week that there could be an issue with the sale of Gassama to Rangers which, according to the Rangers manager Russell Martin, had come about because of Wednesday’s ongoing financial issues, though it has since been reported that these issues have been “ironed out”.

EFL rules require “football debts” and money owed to HMRC to be paid on time, and a failure to keep them up to date could, with Sheffield Wednesday having already having been put under a three-window transfer embargo, even result in a points deduction next season.

There has been considerable interest in buying the club, with several parties having been in contact, leading to what has been described as a “scramble” to record an interest.

On Friday afternoon, BBC Sheffield’s Rob Staton reported that “an agreement has been reached with at least one prospective buyer for Sheffield Wednesday”, with Nixon claiming that American billionaire Tilman Fertitta – owner of NBA franchise the Houston Rockets – was the person who is closing in on a takeover.

However, a new name emerged on Friday evening via BBC Sheffield’s Rob Staton, who claimed Italian businessman Francesco Guardascione is involved in a consortium wanting to purchase the Owls.

With more than £4 million outstanding that needs to be paid immediately, whoever the new Sheffield Wednesday owners turn out to be, they’ll have to have deep pockets to clean up the mess that Chansiri has made in recent months.