Exclusive:Sheffield Wednesday took £3.7m loan from Portuguese agent during Dejphon Chansiri reign
Sheffield Wednesday borrowed £3.7m from a football agent who was involved in deals that brought players to Hillsborough during Dejphon Chansiri’s chairmanship of the club, The Star can exclusively reveal.
Two unsecured loans are detailed in an ‘administrator’s proposal’, which was made available to the club’s creditors on Friday and has been obtained by The Star.
In line with the obligations of administrators at Begbies Traynor at this stage of the process, the 61-page document details Wednesday’s financial position, the administrators’ work to date and the status of administration proceedings. The report documents two unsecured loans; one of which is the much-reported £7,528,750 loan owed to New Avenue Projects.
The Star can reveal that a £3,785,243 sum is also owed to a Mr Luis Miguel Azevedo Povoa Alves, a Portuguese agent who per the FA’s Registered Intermediary Fees and Transactions documentation was the lead intermediary in deals that brought Marco Matias and Momo Diaby to Hillsborough in 2015 and 2023 respectively. The money is believed to have been borrowed within the last 18 months - which coincides with Chansiri’s worsening position in terms of his funding of the club - and before the club was placed in administration.
Alves is not currently live on the FA’s list of registered intermediaries, though he is registered to an equivalent list of the Portuguese football federation, published this earlier this week. Football authorities are understood to be aware of the situation. The Star is told that any case against Sheffield Wednesday is closed and the club itself will not face any disciplinary measure on the matter.
The Alves loan is listed as an ‘unsecured loan’ and so in-line with EFL rules on insolvency, he should expect to receive 25p on the pound on completion of a sales process if Wednesday are to avoid threat of a 15-point penalty heading into next season.
The proposal document also details a duty Begbies Traynor have to investigate the conduct of directors - or ‘de facto directors’ - in the three years leading into administration as part of their legal obligations. Chansiri was the club's only named director, though others are known to have worked closely alongside him in the club's wider business dealings.
The report reads in part: ‘We have a statutory duty to investigate the conduct of the directors and any person we consider to be or have been a shadow or de facto director during the period of three years before the date of our appointment, concerning their management of the affairs of the Company and the causes of its failure.’ A confidential report will be submitted to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in due course.
The proposal states that investigations of the above nature are ongoing and that ‘several matters require further clarification.’ It has not been confirmed to The Star whether the Alves loan is a subject of their investigations.
It reads in part: “We have undertaken a detailed investigation of the manner in which the business was conducted prior to the administration of the Company and have submitted our report to the DBEIS in this regard. We have continued to liaise with and provide information and documentation to the Insolvency Service in relation to queries that have arisen relating to the aforementioned report.
“This work has identified several matters requiring further clarification. As these investigations remain ongoing, it would be prejudicial to comment further at this stage.”
The Star has approached Dejphon Chansiri for comment via Sheffield Wednesday.