Ex-Sunderland man 'told' Sheffield Wednesday chief Dejphon Chansiri 'digging in' for Independent Football Regulator fight
Dejphon Chansiri is preparing to dig in for a legal battle with the Independent Football Regulator over his ownership of Sheffield Wednesday, according to the information of a well-known former EFL chairman.
The Wednesday owner has been the subject of unanimous condemnation for his handling of the club in recent months particularly, with the club having been unable to fulfil salary obligations to its workforce in five of the last seven months. The spiralling financial situation has left the Owls battling for competitive edge in the Championship and with a points deduction expected among a range of other EFL sanctions, relegation to League One looks a near-certainty.
The Star has reported continued frustrations from interested parties with regard to any sales process around the club, with confusion remaining over any defined Chansiri asking price. The valuation of Wednesday is no doubt dropping as time moves on and with little progress known, supporters and employees are becoming increasingly anxious as to the route out of its current malaise.
One method that springs hope is that of the incoming Independent Football Regulator, which has been promised as a body that will have the powers to remove failing owners from their position in appropriate cases. Recent days have seen the IFR appoint key figures including David Kogan OBE as chair. Given the state of flux the club finds itself in, Sheffield Wednesday is being widely seen as something of a test case for their regulatory powers.
It’s certainly seen that way by former Oxford United, Sunderland and Charlton Athletic boardroom figure Charlie Methven, who speaking on the ‘Where’s The Money Gone?’ podcast also claimed he had information to suggest Chansiri is confident of being able to fight the IFR with regard to his future holding of the club.
“I’m told that Chansiri is digging in for his fight against the Regulator,” Methven said. “I’m told that his own legal advice - and goodness knows what that consists of - I’m told that his view is that the regulator ultimately can’t force him out. It is shaping up to be a very early, totemic fight and battle.
“The Government can’t really afford for the Regulator to lose this one. If the Regulator is proven to be impotent even against an owner who is in such dire straits, as Chansiri is now, if it can’t even get his teeth stuck into that, what message does that send to other operators; ‘Ultimately it doesn’t matter what Kogan says because if we just dig our feet in we’ll be ok’?
“I’m not sure the Government or the football authorities can allow for that to be the case. The next few months are going to be very interesting because in some not-very-coded statements made by David Kogan in advance of the thing operating officially... they have suggested to me at least that Sheffield Wednesday is top of the in-tray. All I can do is pray that this is a battle that the Regulator wins because this is one of the great clubs, it really is.
“This is about making sure that one of these great, historic and social institutions are not allowed to be destroyed by bad actors, that’s what it is about.”
Chansiri continued to be the subject of passionate fan protests, with the latest demonstration involving the storming of the Hillsborough pitch by a few dozen Owls fans during Saturday’s Championship clash with Coventry City. Politicians have continued in their canvassing to end Chansiri’s decade-long reign as Wednesday owner and the club’s fan base have received immense support from the wider football community.
The IFR will not be officially ratified for some weeks or months but work goes on to implement what is needed to kick on from the its inception. A spokesperson said: "It is vital that the work to set up the regulator continues at pace to strengthen the governance of the national game and for that we need a chair in post and a board put in place... We have cooperated fully with the inquiry by the Commissioner of Public Appointments and await the report's publication."