Everything we know about the Sheffield Wednesday ownership re-shuffle

It’s a complicated business, football finance, and in terms of the recent changes to Sheffield Wednesday’s ownership set-up this weekend, there are still more questions than answers.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.

Supporters are waiting on moves to be made by the club in the coming weeks that will give a better indication of how and why these changes have been made, but for now, lets have a look at everything we know so far.

Who owns the club?

Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.
Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri.

Officially, a company called Sheffield Wednesday Holdings Ltd is now in ownership of the club, taking over from Dejphon Chansiri, who up until this weekend was in sole charge. He’s still very much pulling the strings though – the company itself is owned by Mr Chansiri. There is no record of the firm’s existence on government registration platform Companies House, which could mean it is registered abroad.

What exactly has happened?

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The club’s share capital has gone up from 25.5m to 46.5m and it looks very much like £21m worth of new shares have been issued at the club. This could well indicate a cash of investment of that size into the club by Mr Chansiri, who has not been shy in offering investment since he took over in 2015. Where that money goes remains to be seen, of course, but what it does mean is that things are finally moving on the finance front for Wednesday, who are currently operating under a soft transfer embargo having not yet handed over their accounts for last season.

How will this effect the club’s soft transfer embargo?

It won’t have an immediate impact, but this could signal the first stage of their way out of it. The EFL are still waiting for Wednesday to hand their accounts over, and it is understood that the embargo will not be lifted until they have done so. Further moves are still to be made until the club reaches that stage, which could come in the next week or two.

Anything else?

Mr Chansiri has registered four new companies – named Sheffield 2, Sheffield 3, Sheffield 4 and Sheffield 5. What these are earmarked for we don’t know, but they are certainly expected to play a part in the financial reshuffle at Wednesday. Football finance expert Keiran McGuire told Radio Sheffield on Saturday he believes it could indicate that the club will follow a model implemented last year at Derby County, whereby sections of the club – the academy, the first team, the commercail department and so on – are owned by different companies, perhaps for tax reasons.

So what’s next?

That we don’t know, but it’s good news for Wednesday fans, who could well have seen fresh investment into the club, the first moves towards the club’s finances being presented to the EFL, and the transfer embargo being lifted. How and in what state the finances of the club present themselves in the coming weeks remain a mystery.