Exclusive:Insurance mogul reveals personal Sheffield Wednesday takeover stance after Simon Jordan discussion
An insurance mogul who has explored the possibility of buying Sheffield Wednesday has revealed his present stance on the matter after the process was re-opened.
Sheffield-born entrepreneur Ryan Howsam was part of a group that went some way into the initial process to buy the club before Christmas, with well-known broadcaster and former club owner Simon Jordan outlined to lead the management of the club alongside him. It’s understood that former Manchester City adviser Stefan Borson was also involved in the bid team.
Howsam’s group pulled back from their interest before the initial bidding stage when it became clear the price point required wouldn’t represent value for money on how they wanted to go about things. That price was in part driven up in part by the EFL’s ‘25p’ rule, which makes it necessary for clubs to pay a 25 per cent payment on monies owed to its football creditors on exit from administration - or face a 15-point deduction heading into the following season. In Wednesday’s case, controversially, the majority of that payment would go to failed outgoing owner Dejphon Chansiri.
Speaking on his Talksport radio show on Thursday morning, Jordan explained in strong terms that the task in hand at Wednesday was one that did not appeal to him as things stand, saying that alongside other commitments he had no intention of ‘running a football club for six years’.
The former Crystal Palace chairman repeated his disgust at the reality that a hefty pay-out to Chansiri as part of the sale price is required to avoid that points sanction - and suggested the EFL had a duty to ease its stance on what he described as regulatory ‘guidance’ in order to aid Wednesday to a healthier footing.
The takeover process has re-opened after a consortium led by former poker player James Bord withdrew from proceedings this week. Administrators are looking to turn things around quickly, with a desire to have all formal bids for the club in around a week’s time. Speaking exclusively to The Star, Howsam made clear he retains a strong interest in taking the club on - but only on the basis that there would be no sanction.
“I've had a chat with him actually,” Howsam said on Jordan. “But I think ultimately the reality is that there's no way I will be paying the minimum amount to get the club without a sanction. So the only way that I would entertain anything would be on the basis of them coming to the table and saying that there would be no sanctioning at the bid that I would put in. That’s just the reality of it.
“Maybe that's something that the administrators can can pick up and speak about. Simon is better versed in these things and has spoken about some wiggle room. So in that sense, I'm still deliberating where we sit, but if that wasn't a cast iron stance on the sanction, it makes things difficult. For us and for others.”
The group had a range of ideas on how to go about re-building the club on a commercial footing and part of the model they had begun to flesh out was on media revenue built around the interest Jordan’s involvement would receive. Howsam, who has made a great success of golf’s Legends Tour, is no football expert and would have leaned heavily on his close friend’s experience in the sport had they been successful in the Wednesday acquisition.
He continued: “Beyond the sanction, there is the point with regards to Simon and whether he’d be involved. He’s been pretty unequivocal, hasn’t he? He is a mate, though, so you just never know.
“I had a chat with him, I asked him what he thought, and I think he’s at a point where it’s moved on from him with other things he's got going on and so on. And he would have been an important person for me to go in and do it with if I was doing it. But even with Simon, even if a lower-level bid was accepted, going in with that 15-point deduction is just not a smart place to start. I’m definitely interested but on that basis, it's unlikely, to be honest.”