Why Sheffield Wednesday are not out of the woods despite 11th-hour payment

The Owls confirmed on Monday that they had finally paid the money owed to their players for a week, doing so just in time to avoid being slapped with the punishment by the English Football League in line with the ‘30-day rule’.

As per the EFL’s explanation, the '30-day rule' is applied to a club should they ‘default on payments for a period of 30 days or more in any 12-month period’, and that period runs from July 1st to June 30th. They also explain that ‘this can refer to one default of 30 days, or a number of individual defaults which when taken together amount to 30 days’, meaning that Wednesday’s previous late payments to HM Revenue and Customs was also factored in.

Dejphon Chansiri’s confirmation to The Star that Wednesday’s deadline to avoid hitting that 30-day mark was Monday means that, even though wages have now been paid in full, he has to avoid any further slip-ups for the next three months. Even one day would be enough to trigger the ban.

Sheffield Wednesday fans are still concerned

Wednesday will have been fined the greater amount of either ‘£6,000 or 5% of the outstanding sum due’ when they hit 20 days, whenever that may have been, and are left with zero wiggle room for the remainder of the 2024/25 season. Even with the payment made, fans still aren’t able to breathe easily.

Especially given that Chansiri was unable to provide a guarantee that Wednesday wouldn’t find themselves in a similar position during his ownership in the future, telling The Star this week, "The club relies on my money. The expenditure for the club is very big, it is not easy. I can just say I will do my best.”

At least, however, for now they can stop their immediate concerns about the summer and what may lie ahead for the club’s recruitment plans – though until July 1st rolls around without incident it will constantly be lingering in the back of everyone’s mind.

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