How Dejphon Chansiri’s plummeting shares could partly explain Sheffield Wednesday's financial crisis

Chansiri bought Wednesday in January 2015, paying Milan Mandaric somewhere in the region of £30m for the privilege and targeting a return to the Premier League by 2017. It’s now 2025, and the club are pretty much where the Thai businessman found them – midtable in the Championship.

Financially, things have not looked good for the Owls for some time now. The current issues around unpaid wages are nothing new, and if – later this month – players remain hand in their notice while still waiting for their money then it wouldn’t be the first time. It’s understood to have been the case in 2021, too.

There have been problems with payments to HM Revenue & Customs, as well, and it’s understood that the club are now in the midst of a three-window transfer fee restriction (on top of their embargo) that means they can only sign free agents and free loans until January 2027.

But how did this once great club go from spending millions in the hunt for a return to promised land to struggling to pay even the non-football staff. There’s been talk of takeovers, and consortiums have spoken out, but as things stand the Owls remain under the ownership of Chansiri – a man who has almost single-handedly propped them up for years.

One possible explanation, from assessing one of the key elements of Chansiri’s wealth, could be the sheer drop in the value of the Thai Union Group – of which he owns just under 1% of shares. It’s ranged in recent years from 0.84% to 0.9%.

John West Foods, who are owned by the TUG, have distanced themselves from the Wednesday chairman and the club, in a fascinating statement that read, in part, “Neither Thai Union Group nor John West Foods have any financial interest in, or connection with, Sheffield Wednesday F.C. For further info, please contact the club directly. Thank you.”

It’s a move that could have come about for various reasons, but is especially interesting given that their logo (TUF - Thai Union Frozen Products at the time) was all over the branding when Chansiri took over. They’re now making it clear that it’s nothing to do with them.

And while they may have ‘no financial interest’ in the Owls, the Owls’ fortunes are intrinsically linked to theirs. With 40,000,000 shares in the TUG, it’s likely that a large portion of Chansiri’s worth comes from the group – the problem is that the value of said shares has halved since he took over.

In January 15, when he bought the club, the share price at the TUG topped out at around 22.40 Thai Baht, this week it’s closer to 10. Aside from 2021, when a good year saw it rise to 22.50, it’s trended downwards and is now at its lowest since 2011 - at the same time the price of both matchday and season tickets at Hillsborough have been on the rise.

The Thai Union Group’s share value drop

Chansiri’s number of shares first showed up in the TUG Annual Report for 2021, with 40,240,000 (0.84%) in his name – and the latest report saw him sat at 40,000,000 (0.90%). If that tally has been consistent during his time as owner of the Owls, his share value will have dropped from around £18m to about £9m. That’s not taking into account his other linked companies, of course.

According to the TUG’s ARs from 2016 until now, Chansiri has been a shareholder in various companies connected to the group - including 92% of Geminai & Associate Co Ltd, 25.4% of Chansiri Real Estate Co. and 6% of Thai Union Properties. In the latest report only Geminai & Associate Co Ltd and Chansiri Real Estate remain, on top of the 0.90% shares that he has in TUG directly. The Chansiri family as a whole own 18.30%, down from 21.6% in the report released the year the Owls were purchased.

Whatever his other business enterprises, the sheer drop in share value at TUG will have had a big effect on Chansiri’s net worth, and will almost certainly have altered what he can and can’t afford to do at Hillsborough. According to the last round of accounts, for the year ending in July 2024, a loss after tax of £9,837,000 was recorded. According to experts Wednesday have racked up around £150m in losses during Chansiri’s tenure.

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And that brings us to now, with question marks over his ability to continue to fund the club. Talks over a sale have come to nought, and one possible explanation offered up spoke of owners who are not be able to afford a sale for below a certain price due to the scale of repayments owed once any sale goes through.

Football finance expert, Kieran Maguire said recently, “In the past we have seen situations where money has been put into club to cover losses, money acquired from third-party sources and therefore they have an obligation to repay those amounts when the club is sold. That could leave a shortfall, which is one reason somebody might play hardball as far as prospective buyers are concerned.”

So what happens next? One suggestion has been administration. We’ve seen it in the past with clubs like Bolton Wanderers, Wigan Athletic and Portsmouth, where owners reportedly walked away from £20m to £60m+ in unrecoverable loans purely because the financial pressure became too great and no buyer met their price. It’s known that there are potential buyers out there waiting to see if this happens, with buying in administration sometimes being seen as easier than negotiating a takeover depending on the circumstances.

For better insight, we spoke to Professor Rob Wilson, who is not only a Professor of Applied Sport Finance at the University Campus of Football Business, but also their Director of Executive Education. During the conversation he spoke about why administration may not only have a net-positive outcome – but possibly even be the best-case scenario. For the club at least.

What would administration mean for Sheffield Wednesday?

“While many think of administration as a last resort, particularly given the points sanction that would follow, it actually presents a best outcome for the club and its supporter base,” he told The Star. “Though it will adversely affect the current owner and his own financial future.

“While administration points to financial instability and could see some key assets undervalued or sold under pressure, the process would actually enable SWFC to reset its financial liabilities, enable the EFL to intervene and support the sales process and secure a new level of investment or ownership that stabilises the club in the medium term.

“Ultimately, what is clear, is that the club lacks both the liquidity and revenue to maintain its own financial operations. It is operating a hand-to-mouth existence which benefits no stakeholder; fans, employees, players or the owner.”

The current wages debacle is a clear indicator of where things are at at present, but Wilson admits that – from Chansiri’s perspective – the Owls owner may not be in a position to relinquish control.

He went on to say, “The failure to pay wages on two separate occasions indicates an acute financial challenge and unless further owner investment is secured, to maintain the clubs status as a going concern, the club will continue to default. This would enable players to terminate contracts owing to contractual breach on behalf of the club, further exacerbating the financial situation and reducing the available asset pool.

“Facilitating a change of ownership at a financially distressed football club like SWFC requires a careful balancing of financial recovery, regulatory compliance and long-term stability. While many will think administration is far from ideal, it’s a well-trodden pathway for professional clubs and provides an opportunity for the club to rebuild and hopefully regain its status as one of England’s giant clubs. Whether the owner can afford to relinquish control of his prized asset remains to be seen. Doing so would deliver untold damage to his own personal finances given his significant investment into the club over the last decade.”

Things don’t necessarily have to get messy, either. In the past we’ve seen something known as a ‘pre-pack’ agreed - they are controversial, but seen as effective. They allow struggling business to be sold immediately after entering administration, preserving operations while shedding much of its debt. In football, that can mean saving a club from collapse - but at a cost.

This sort of approach has precedent - Leeds United went down that path in 2007. The Football League responded with a 15-point deduction, but ultimately the club survived. Coventry City did the same in 2013, and the team were kept afloat.

Here’s how it works… A buyer is lined up and a sale is negotiated confidentially, before administration. The club formally enters administration, only for the agreed sale to executed immediately by the administrators. So the business continues to trade, fixtures go ahead as normal, and staff stay in place. Many creditors, however, including HMRC and local suppliers, probably recover only a fraction of what they’re owed. It’s not perfect, but sources with knowledge of the situation believe it could be the best option.

Mel Morris had to walk away from Derby County with losses of around £200m, a figure he made public. In 2021, with no viable sale, no working capital, and a threat from HMRC looming, Morris instructed Quantuma to file for administration - voluntarily. This season they finished just eight points behind Wednesday.

At the time of writing, though, there remain more questions than answers about the future of Sheffield Wednesday. But one thing that does seem certain is that something has to change. The club has struggled to pay wages in two of the last three months, they’ve been charged by the EFL and player walkouts are not far from being a legally viable option.

Given the steady decline in value of Chansiri’s shares at TUG, and the unknown nature of his other sources of income, it’s hard to envisage a turnaround under the current leadership. The fact that the club’s on-the-pitch success could well be less important to their survival than the success of seafood company is a scary thought, but unless something changes that could be the reality they continue to live in.

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