Dejphon Chansiri big baby blimp among Sheffield Wednesday protest plans spiked ahead of Sheffield United clash
Had things not changed last month, fan protest at this weekend’s Steel City derby would have featured a 15-foot blimp depicting Dejphon Chansiri dressed as a clown-haired baby, The Star can playfully reveal.
Four weeks on from confirmation of Chansiri’s effective exit from the club after he placed Wednesday in administration, the Owls head into this weekend’s Steel City derby with Sheffield United with supporter focus placed on supporting their team both in spirit and financially as the club steps further towards new ownership and the possibilities that comes with it.
Had Chansiri still been in charge, the theme of the weekend would likely have been very different. Months of boycott culminated in a widely-acknowledged stay-away of last month’s Middlesbrough and debate had begun to turn towards whether the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust would once again encourage similar action for the Blades clash.
Though a Trust stance had not yet been formalised on where to go on that front, plans had been made to capture the media imagination with the 15-foot blimp, inspired by the famous ‘Donald Trump baby balloon’ displayed at a political protest in London’s Parliament Square in 2018.
Quotes were sought and an image was drawn-up by a specialist company. The Trust were ready to part with a four-figure sum to plant a striking image of the day alongside their less gimmicky, longer-term protest plans.
Jake Lee, who took the lead on matchday protests for the Trust alongside fellow fan Otto Brookes, told The Star: “It’s an idea we’d had for quite a while and it all came from the Trump protests we’d seen in London. It was all loosely based on that. We got a quote and spoke to the guys the plan was to have to stationed on Penistone Road over the road from the Kop, bouncing around. But then the administration stuff started so it was put on hold.
“What we’d have done for the derby (in terms of a supporter boycott) I’m not quite sure. We never got that far and whether we’d have pulled the full membership with a boycott I don’t know. We’d certainly have continued discouraging walk-up tickets. Thankfully we haven’t had to worry about it.”
Though now spiked, The Trust had plans afoot for the possibility of Chansiri clinging on. The fan base had already been discouraged from the purchase of any early bird season tickets and The Star has seen evidence of a detailed, three-pronged campaign strategy that stretched well into next year. It would have delivered both a ‘direct challenge’ to encourage the non-alignment of club sponsors and a ‘full spectrum’ supporter boycott of all club revenue streams.
Vice-chair James Silverwood said on whether fans would have been encouraged to boycott the derby: “We hadn’t got to a proper board discussion for that yet and clearly hadn’t made a decision either way on how we might go about that. But we were definitely going to do the blimp.
“The matchday protests were never actually going to be the vehicle by which he actually left the club. There was no protest in the world that would have shamed him enough to leave. But what they did do was keep the media attention on the club and that was their purpose. We needed to keep eyes on the club and its mismanagement. Gladly that stuff isn’t necessary anymore and after a lot of heartache the club can move on.”
The activity and short-term mission statement of the Trust has been transformed since administration was enacted. A fundraising push put forward to contribute to the club’s running costs gathered a nick under £60,000, with a further £20,000 donated by the Trust itself.
Owls commercial manager James Todd has worked closely with members of the Trust board and as part of a newly-formed partnership, opportunities have been opened up for Wednesday-supporting children from less-privileged backgrounds to attend matches and enjoy mascot experiences. It was announced at a recent forum event that the Trust’s logo will be displayed on the club’s playing shorts, with a first outing believed to be possible this weekend.
“Doing some of the community stuff has been unbelievable,” Lee said. “That’s what a Trust is meant to be for, isn’t it? As a Supporters Trust we’ve never really had that opportunity because it’s a relatively new organisation and it’s only ever known Chansiri. All this is new to us, co-operating with the club and coming up with ideas has been great. It’s all been genuinely collaborative with the club and they’ve been great.”