Exclusive:'Astonishing' Dejphon Chansiri approach unmoved as would-be Sheffield Wednesday takeover figure lifts lid
Dejphon Chansiri has not altered his approach to selling Sheffield Wednesday despite mounting pressure, The Star understands, with one representative of a formerly interested party having described the process as ‘astonishing’.
Throughout the last months a number of interested parties are known to have approached the club, Chansiri himself and or lawyers with a view to negotiating the potential acquisition of Wednesday, with The Star aware of a growing number who have walked away frustrated at a confused process and an absence of any clear asking price.
It’s understood that some potential suitors have effectively been asked by Chansiri to draw up a blind opening bid in order to engage in negotiations, with no tangible guide on what might prove to be acceptable. A process set up through UK-based lawyer David Hinchliffe, who is believed to have initially engaged with the club to deal with EFL disciplinary wrangles and has since been tasked with overseeing some takeover enquiries, has yet not been empowered to overstep Chansiri’s methods and close any deal.
As far back as June, The Star was able to report the experience of an intermediary who had been looking to stimulate interest in the club and had been left shocked at a ‘bizarre’ sales procedure. We saw evidence that showed the intermediary had been told by Chansiri that he had received interest at over £100m.
Four months on, that claim of interest has not translated into any sale and external pressure is mounting with HMRC having threatened a winding-up order on the club over an outstanding £1m debt. The re-negotiation or repayment of a £7.4m loan on Hillsborough stadium is still not confirmed on Companies House, the club’s list of other significant creditors include the EFL and it’s understood that a further six-figure sum is now owed to HMRC in relation to monies owed on PAYE.
With no understanding of any progress in terms of a sale or takeover, it would appear that among the more likely outcomes in the absence of a full repayment or repayment plan is administration; either voluntarily or by creditors application. With Chansiri at the heart of matters, the situation around the club’s future direction remains complex and unpredictable.
In recent weeks The Star has spoken to another figure with knowledge of the matter who told us two potential buyers he was working with had walked away from the process having seen attempts to engage fall flat. The UK-based figure works entirely separately to the intermediary quoted in our June report and the two are not known to be associated.
He has previously been involved in a number of football club acquisitions, including one involving one of the biggest clubs in Europe, and tells a similar story of his experience all these months on. The involvement of his US-based consortium sought to make contact with Chansiri through a third party. Any attempt at negotiation ended quickly and in confusion some weeks ago.
“We had a couple of potential parties who were interested in the purchase of Sheffield Wednesday,” he said, speaking to The Star on the condition he would remain anonymous to the public. “I brought something forward in my naivety that Chansiri was running some sort of process. In one case we sought to introduce a very credible American party, well-funded with existing sporting interests across the pond and he just refused to speak to them.
“It was a nonsense and I honestly don’t know what he’s trying to do. It’s just the most bizarre process and describing it as a process is being kind. You hear all sorts of numbers being bandied about and nobody seems to know what the actual asking price is. The Americans said they weren’t going to waste their time. There are people standing back and waiting to speak to an administrator. You see some odd things in the line of work that I’m in but with this the situation, it doesn’t make any sense. I found it astonishing.”
That mounting external pressure from creditors does not appear to have delivered a material difference in how Chansiri has gone about things more recently. Multiple sources with an insight into proceedings suggest the suggested price point the Wednesday owner has in mind remains inconsistent. There is no knowledge of any effort to re-engage with the once interested parties The Star has been aware of.
Indecision over a move to put the club into administration proceedings amid the threat of a winding-up petition has cost the club vital revenue in that two home matchdays this week will retain minimal revenue levels where the reversal of the ongoing fan spending boycott would have re-opened the floodgates of matchday and retail spending. October’s payday is scheduled for October 31 and it’s understood that the club have so far been unable to provide assurances that staff will be paid on time.
“There are three possible outcomes here as I see it,” our source continued. “One, he can suddenly find a whole bunch of money to re-base the whole thing, which I think is pretty unlikely. Secondly, he wakes up and sells the club at a price that is acceptable to a purchaser. My gut feeling is that £30m is a sensible top-end price given the potential of the club, because you’ve then got to spend that again to get it into a reasonable shape with the ground issues and re-stocking the squad.
“But if this continues I suspect it will simply run out of money and an administrator will be called in. At the minute, unless he comes to his senses, that feels to me to be the most likely outcome. Administration isn’t great, I can’t sit here and disguise that, but it would restructure it in that it gets rid of him and moves things along. There would be interest in buying Sheffield Wednesday in an administration process, I’ve no doubt of that. But this guy is just making things worse and worse every day it goes on.”