1-11-2023 (LONDON) Dejphon Chansiri, the multi-millionaire Thai owner of English Championship football team Sheffield Wednesday, has made a plea to the club’s fans, urging them to raise £2 million (S$3.3 million) to “save their club.”
Once a founding member of the Premier League, Sheffield Wednesday suffered a relegation in 2000, which led to a downward spiral through the English football pyramid. The team eventually found themselves in League One, the third tier of English football. However, they managed to secure promotion to the Championship, the second tier, at the end of the 2022/23 season by finishing third and winning the promotion playoffs.
Dejphon Chansiri, a Thai businessman whose family owns the Thai Union Group, one of the world’s largest canned tuna producers, took over Sheffield Wednesday in 2014. Since then, the club has been moving between the Championship and League One.
Currently, the team is struggling at the bottom of the league with only six points from 14 games. This poor performance has resulted in managerial changes and discontent among some fans. Some supporters have resorted to throwing tennis balls onto the pitch and expressing their frustration towards Chansiri on social media.
In response to the abuse, Chansiri issued a strong rebuke to the fans, accusing them of ingratitude for the significant financial support he had personally provided to the club. While acknowledging that constructive criticism was acceptable, Chansiri emphasized in a statement on the Wednesday website on September 29th:
“But no one has the right to cross the line or the right to try and cause damage, throw insults, or go to my family which has happened again, which I cannot accept.”
Furthermore, Chansiri stated in the same message that he would cease injecting additional funds into the club if he continued to face unfair treatment.
True to his word, on October 27th, the BBC reported that Sheffield Wednesday was under a registration embargo due to outstanding debts owed to the British tax agency, HM Revenue and Customs. This embargo prevents the club from registering new players without prior consent. Chansiri explained to The Star, a local Sheffield newspaper, that personal financial issues hindered his ability to settle the club’s debts. While part-time and casual staff will still be paid, employees with higher salaries, including players and coaching staff, may not receive their wages.
Chansiri then presented a challenge to the club’s fans, suggesting that if 20,000 supporters each contributed £100 (S$166), the £2 million (S$3.3 million) debt could be cleared. Sheffield Wednesday’s average attendance is approximately 25,000, according to transfermarkt.com.
Responding to fans who had referred to him as a “custodian” of the club and claimed that the fans were the “real” owners, Chansiri stated that this was an opportunity for them to save their club. Only if the fans were able to raise the required funds would they “have the right” to demand his departure, Chansiri argued.
The Star reported that Chansiri assured fans who contributed money to the club that they would be “paid back with interest” once the cash flow improved. He also repeatedly denied intentionally withholding funds to emphasize his importance to the club.
Failure to settle the outstanding debt owed to HM Revenue and Customs could result in a transfer ban lasting one and a half seasons, preventing Sheffield Wednesday from signing new players.
Naturally, Wednesday’s fans did not take kindly to the challenge. The club’s supporters’ trust expressed their disapproval, stating that a “fit and proper” owner would not make such a demand. Adding to the discontent, Sheffield Wednesday increased season ticket prices for the 2023/24 season, potentially making them the most expensive in the league, as warned by The Star.
While some fans defended Chansiri, dismissing the criticism as mere whinging, the controversy caught the attention of the local Member of Parliament, who asserted that it was Chansiri’s responsibility, not the fans’, to address the club’s debt.
