Sheffield Wednesday to appeal points deduction - your questions answered

The written reasons behind the 12-point deduction of points from Sheffield Wednesday heading into next season have been published, with the club immediately making clear it intends to appeal the decision in a strongly-worded statement.
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The two documents, prepped by the independent disciplinary commission that heard the case, confirms as suspected that the issues surrounding Wednesday’s handling of the case centred on the timing of the sale of their Hillsborough stadium rather than its valuation or the sale itself.

It makes clear that the EFL wanted to pursue the deduction of 12 points or more this season, effectively relegating the Owls to League One. But the panel saw inconsistencies with the way they intended to deal with a similar case, that of Derby County, and ruled the points deduction would be enacted ahead of next season.

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After three club officials – chairman Dejphon Chasiri, former CEO Katrien Meire and former finance director John Redgate – were cleared of individual misconduct charges back in March, the club were also cleared of misleading the EFL’s investigations.

Owls Chairman Dejphon Chansiri. Pic: Steve Ellis.Owls Chairman Dejphon Chansiri. Pic: Steve Ellis.
Owls Chairman Dejphon Chansiri. Pic: Steve Ellis.

The EFL received criticism for their handling of the investigation, which in their view was not carried out vigorously enough. Senior EFL figures including former CEO Shaun Harvey were accused of not devoting requisite attention to the case and took holidays at key times.

The Star spoke to sports finance expert Dr Dan Plumley, of Sheffield Hallam University, to comb through some of the bigger talking points and discuss where this leaves Sheffield Wednesday’s appeal.

So where are we at now that we weren’t earlier this morning?

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Stripping back, the independent commission have ruled that Sheffield Wednesday have breached FFP and P&S but have not deliberately mislead the EFL.

The main thing that jumps out to me is the timing of the points deduction - the big issue was whether it would be last season or next. If we use the Birmingham case, which has been used as a bit of a yardstick, the sanctions should apply at the end of the reporting three-year rolling period the charge relates to.

What the IDC are saying is that they should have been punished in the 2018/19 season. Wednesday were well clear of relegation that season. But it's dragged on and on and their reasoning is that it is unfair to put the deduction onto the 19/20 season because of how far it's dragged.

It makes a nod that it would have been unfair to Wednesday when the restart occurred, that there were so many contracts out at the end of June and the club would have been playing at an unfair disadvantage and effectively battle relegation with a threadbare squad. All that is essentially why it's at the start of next season, not the one just gone.

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So without going after Chansiri and the club on aggravated charges, this could have effectively been dealt with during the season?

It effectively says that charge two has lengthened the timing of all this and that most of the conversations were about charge two and not charge one.

It does mention the way that Covid affected these things and how things needed to be done, but also that charge two has dragged this out a little bit longer.

What about Derby? Why are they mentioned?

The EFL are not looking for a points deduction for Derby for this season, so the argument is, why should they do so for Wednesday? The two cases are similar and it's a definite inconsistency.

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The document suggests all would have been well is they’d have pressed on with the sale of Hillsborough in August 2018. Is there an obvious reason they would have done so?

I can't think of an obvious reason why they would hold on to it. The documents suggest that a lot of the sale was a little bit rushed or not fully thought-through, that all appeared to be the case.

In effect the sale was linked to a third party owned by Mr Chansiri so there won't have been any attempt to hold anyone to ransom over the sale price or anything like that.

There are no real financial sticking points. There's a bit of stuff about the valuations of the stadium and so on, but nothing too major in that regard.

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Is it fair to say that neither side comes out looking brilliant here?

The wording of the document from the very start and to the conclusion is that there are lessons to be learned here for both parties, with suggestions moving forward, one of those being the communication and deadlines set.

This has wider repercussions in terms of the league for the EFL, for the P&S regulations and maybe we will see a tweak in those further down the line. One summary of this is that both parties have not come out of this looking great.

So what of the appeal? What’s next? What are the chances of a successful appeal?

It means it's all going to drag on a little bit longer.

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I wonder if they're looking at that as a bit of a 'shot to nothing'. Assuming we know the points deduction is going to be applied next season, an appeal is not going to relegate them and they'll start on minus 12, so it might well be a shot to getting some points taken off during the season further down the line if they can get it overturned.

The slight concern would be that they get a further deduction for aggravated offences which could be another three plus points. It's a tricky one.

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