Sheffield Wednesday lost £178m between 2015, when Dejphon Chansiri bought the club, and 2024.
Chansiri was keen to invest and speculate in terms of player purchases and higher wages when he initially arrived.
It should be remembered that Wednesday were in the Championship play-offs – looking for promotion to the Premier League – twice in the early years.
However, it appears that Chansiri’s ability to provide finance for the club has diminished more recently – the past couple of years in particular.
That has led to wages not being paid, creditors not being paid and a lack of maintenance on the stadium.
As a result of that, one of the stands at Hillsborough is deemed not to be fit for purpose and will be empty when Wednesday play their first games.
This is a case of people chasing the dream and then wondering what to do when that dream doesn’t come true.
And it is an ongoing issue in the second tier of English football, in the sense that average losses are £400,000 per week.
If an owner’s circumstances change, as appears to be the case with Chansiri, or if an owner’s attitude towards football changes and they feel they no longer want to subsidise clubs – as we have seen elsewhere – then there are going to be consequences which leave clubs’ futures looking quite precarious.
We have seen quite a few clubs go into administration and even worse issues somewhere like Morecambe, who are in genuine danger of ceasing to exist.
