Simon Jordan hits out at EFL process and 'low-resolution thinkers' amid Sheffield Wednesday news
Sheffield Wednesday are in new ownership and will not face the reality of a points deduction heading into the new season.
Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan, at one time an interested party in the process around buying Sheffield Wednesday, has spoken passionately on the events that have seen the club avoid a points deduction heading into the new campaign.
The Talksport broadcaster has been a long-time advocate for change to the EFL’s ‘minimum dividend’ rule that stood to offer Dejphon Chansiri a reimbursement of 25% of his majority creditor claim when the Owls fell into administration - and made clear it was among the major sticking points in his interest in acquiring the club.
Wednesday are at last under new ownership having been taken over by US consortium Arise Capital Partners over the weekend. It was announced that the club had avoided the threat of a 15-point deduction for a failure to satisfy the rule. The wide understanding is that this decision was reached after it was found Chansiri was acting under bad faith with regard to negotiations over his claim.
“This was guidance, no other business in the world provides a safety net for someone on the way out,” Jordan said on Talksport.
“So the person that ran the football club into a bad position gets a safe position of 25p on the pound. The EFL have introduced that rule because they’ve got a bunch of low resolution thinkers inside their governance who cry and scream like stuffed pigs because they’ll say ‘it’s a disadvantage to us’, while these clubs go into administration, they come out the other side, they’re able to build quickly and they don’t suffer the disadvantage of it.’
“They seem to ignore that most football clubs that go into financial administration have suffered punishment enough by being in administration. They’ve lost all their best players, they’ve lost all their facilities, they’re already in decay and disrepute and ultimately the money that can be invested in them is going to go out the door to the previous owner.”
Jordan took a look at the acquisition of Wednesday alongside his friend, insurance mogul Ryan Howsam. The pair also had sports finance expert Stefan Borson on board and went some way into the process before Christmas - though Howsam revealed to The Star in March that for a number of reasons they were no longer interested when the second opportunity came around.
Throughout his commentary of the process, the former Palace owner made no secret of his disregard for the EFL’s minimum dividend rule and how it stood to ‘reward’ Chansiri for his failed governance of the club.
“When I spoke to the Football League, I said it’s a stupid policy, and you know it’s a stupid policy, it’s a badly constructed one, it’s not even a policy, it’s not even a rule, it’s guidance,” he added. “And have some balls, and allow Sheffield Wednesday to find their way through it.
“The clear position was going to be very easy, go to Chansiri and say ‘we’re going to take a 15 point penalty and you’re going to get nothing, or you get something on a deal that makes sense to us, that gives us some upside when we get some upside, and you might get some money because at this moment in time you’re going to get zip’. And that’s what’s been done, and the EFL have been able to find a way to wave it through.”