Leeds United rivals’ owner makes bizarre call on fans to cough up £2m cash for tax bill and wages

Leeds United’s Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday are in a major financial crisis right now and the club are at risk of facing a multi-window transfer embargo. Staff may also go unpaid this month due to the personal cash flow issues of owner Dejphon Chansiri, who has said ‘money is not in the bank.’

The Thai businessman has asked for fans who ‘call themselves owners’ to find £2 million of their own money to help steady the ship by paying an outstanding HMRC debt, as per an exclusive from our sister site The Star.

In the interview, Chansiri confirmed that the debt had not yet been paid, despite it being due on October 23rd. Wednesday were put into a registration embargo by the EFL last week as a result of going over the payment deadline. For every day the Owls are unable to pay the fee, they edge closer to a hefty transfer embargo, which will prevent them from paying any sort of transfer or loan fee.

Wednesday staff are due to be paid today — the last day of October — and while the club owner has stated that part-time and casual staff will be paid in full, and staff ‘who need help’ will receive assistance, those on higher salaries could be hit hard. Individuals on both the playing and non-playing side of the club are at risk of being underpaid or not receiving payment at all this month.

Chansiri has called upon Wednesday fans to take this opportunity to save their club, and has outlined that contributions will be paid back, with interest, once the financial status improves. He believes a £2 million rally from Wednesday fans would be enough to cover the HMRC debt, as well as level out the situation with staff salaries.

“If 20,000 people gave £100 then it’s £2 million, and it’d be clear — so we can finish it,” Chansiri told The Star. “That would cover everything, HMRC and the wages. That would need to be done before November 10th if they don’t want to pass the 30 days, but that means that there can be no next time. It’d need to be before to make it safe — if it was on the fifth then there would be 10 days left… If we were to hit 30 days then we’ll get a ban for three windows.

“If I had money in the bank, why wouldn’t I pay? There is no cash flow, money is not in the bank, how am I going to pay? I need to wait until money comes in. I did it last month, if I did not inject money I would have already done it. There was no need to wait until this month.

“All over the world there is a shortage of cash flow because of the economy, of Covid, of Russia, Israel. This is normal in business now and I need to accept that because the club relies on my money. The people who owe me money in business have not paid on time because they are short of cash flow too. It is a domino, it will affect more people. What can I do? We prepare but the money has not come. If they do not do that, what can I do? This situation is happening all over the world.

“Those who say it is their club, when it was clear we had an issue with HMRC, people came out and said ‘Chairman, you need to take responsibility to pay’, that if we don’t pay we have to sell ‘our club’ — why do they say ‘our club’? I never heard any fan say ‘we need to prepare to save our club’, they just say I have to leave. It’s funny, they say they are owners and I am custodian.”