How the EFL ended up red-faced after launching Sheffield Wednesday 'conspiracy' allegations

The EFL have been left red-faced after an independent disciplinary commission found that senior officials liaising with Sheffield Wednesday over the sale of their Hillsborough stadium had one eye on the beach at crucial periods of the process.
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The written reasoning behind the commission’s decision to hand Wednesday a 12-point deduction, effective from the start of next season, were released this morning and accused then-EFL CEO Shaun Harvey and governance and legal director Nick Craig of not giving documents relating to the sale – including an unsigned ‘Head of Terms’ document that effectively disproved the EFL’s claim they had been deliberately misled by Wednesday officials – requisite scrutiny.

The document says it was ‘obvious’ that the pair did not have their minds fully applied to the job in hand, noting that ‘both were on holiday or going on holiday at crucial moments following a busy period’.

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A club statement has made clear they will appeal the decision. The 12-point sanction would likely have been increased should they have been found guilty of deception.

Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri.Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri.
Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri.

It is around the time in question that much of the confusion between the two parties arose, prompting the EFL to accuse Sheffield Wednesday and three senior club officials – chairman Dejphon Chansiri, former CEO Katrien Meire and former finance director John Redgate – of deliberately misleading the EFL’s investigation.

This accusation was thrown out by the commission, with the document stating matters would have inevitably been concluded much sooner had the process focused solely on the initial charge of whether or not the club breached P&S rules.

Much of the EFL’s case centred on an email from Meire to Chansiri that read that she “didn’t feel comfortable signing a document of transaction that is backdated”.

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Meire, who left the club in Februry 2019, went on to say that: “I understand it’s to help the club but I think it’s quite risky with so many people that will have known that this is not what has happened.”

Where the EFL suggest this was evidence of ‘some kind of conspiracy to provide false documents’, the commission found that there was no deliberate attempt to mislead and that the context of the email was in the assumption the EFL were aware of the lack of a binding agreement for the sale of Hillsborough, a document that had not been properly checked for by the EFL.

This context, the document says, would make it ‘plain to everyone present’ that the retroactive action would have to be taken and that documents would have had to have been signed after July 31, proving there was no motive for Sheffield Wednesday to mislead the authority.

John Redgate was ‘pressed hard’ by the commission but maintained backdating was not discussed by Wednesday officials, a statement that he was accused of lying over by the EFL’s closing statements.

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The commission also noted that Meire was a ‘frank and open witness’ and a suggestion that she had deliberately concealed evidence from the EFL was ‘unlikely in the extreme’.

Attention now turns to Wednesday’s appeal, which an Owls statement said will take place ‘in the Autumn’.

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