Sheffield Wednesday run serious embargo risk as nervy wages wait ensues

The Owls are, unfortunately, no stranger to late payments – an issue that has reared its head on a number of occasions – and having fell foul both with wages and tax payments over the last year they find themselves one default day away from a lengthy embargo.

Players and staff members had expected to be paid today, the final working day of the month, however The Star understands that at least some have not been paid at the time of writing, though it is believed that others on lower wages did receive what was owed to them.

Wednesday had the same problem at the end of March, only for players and staff to be paid by Dejphon Chansiri right before the deadline that would have resulted in the ban, but they may not be so lucky this time around. Everybody has to be paid in full in order for the ban to be avoided.

Sheffield Wednesday could face a three-window ban

Technically it is still payday for those owed money, and should they be paid tomorrow then it would still be classed as before the end of the month. It’s understood that club have two days after the original default to either pay up or report it to the league, after that the ‘30 day rule’ will apply.

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 are also factored in.

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 – the next punishment is a ban for ‘three full transfer windows’ commencing on the date on which the ‘persistent default’ occurred.

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