How former Sheffield United owner “scuppered" hopes of billionaire Turki Alalshikh buying Sheffield Wednesday amid Dejphon Chansiri crisis
How former Sheffield United owner “scuppered" hopes of billionaire Turki Alalshikh buying Sheffield Wednesday amid Dejphon Chansiri crisis
With supporters of Sheffield Wednesday praying for new ownership amid the financial chaos overseen by Dejphon Chansiri, speculation of interest from Saudi Arabian billionaire Turki Alalshikh set tongues racing earier this year. The boxing kingpin has a net worth estimated to be more than £2billion, and is said to be keen to buy an English football club.
The situation looked more likely when Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace chairman, encouraged the Saudi to buy into the Owls amid their current financial turmoil, which has already seen the departure of manager Danny Rohl and a number of key first-team players this summer.
The Owls also cannot open their north stand until repair work is completed, while staff and players have been advised that their wages are likely to be late once again this month as the EFL prepare to hit Wednesday with a raft of points deductions.
But Alalshikh has instead been linked with clubs in the south, including Millwall and Southampton, while reports have suggested that Chansiri is asking £100m to sell the Owls despite their current predicament.
How former Sheffield United owner “scuppered" hopes of billionaire Turki Alalshikh buying Sheffield Wednesday amid Dejphon Chansiri crisis
And, speaking on Talksport, Jordan claimed that discussions between Alalshikh and Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud, his fellow Saudi national who sold Wednesday’s city rivals United to an American consortium last year for £105m, may have put the former off the idea of buying into the Owls.
"In this instance, at Sheffield Wednesday, I've spoken to various people," said Jordan. "I've spoken to Turki about buying Sheffield Wednesday. I don't think that he felt that his mate, who owned Sheffield United, had the nicest experience in Sheffield. He described Sheffield in certain ways that I possibly won't say on air."
Prince Abdullah, however, went on to deny Jordan’s version of events, posting on social media: “Not accurate, hopefully I will be next week with Simon and Jim [White] to clarify this. We never talked about [Wednesday] or Sheffield the city.”
Sheffield’s northern location was also said to be an issue for Alalshikh in his consideration of buying Wednesday. "But the fact of the matter is that it is a great football club," Jordan added. "Chansiri has spent a lot of money in there, but he seems to not get the zeitgeist.
"The challenge is, if you open football up for business, globally, you bring people in who aren't as invested as you would like them to be. Of course, the exceptions to that would be people like Sheikh Mansour [the owner of Manchester City], but they have a different attitude.
"They are using football for different reasons. They're doing it for an influence play and a sort of power play, and all that goes with it. So they will really make things successful."
Prince Abdullah spent more than a decade involved with the Blades after initially arriving as a co-owner alongside Kevin McCabe, winning sole control of United after a bitter High Court battle with his former business partner.
He tried and failed on more than one occasion to sell the Blades before a deal finally got over the line with Steve Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy, the frontmen of the COH Sports group which has since welcomed multiple investors.
The Prince has admitted publicly that the stress of owning United had taken its toll on him and his family, but it hasn’t put him off the idea of buying into another English football club in the future after a spell away from the game.