5 years of Dejphon Chansiri

On the 29th January 2015 Dejphon Chansiri was introduced to Sheffield Wednesday supporters by Milan Mandaric as the new owner of our club. At the time Mandaric was quoted as saying

"I'm very happy and proud of what I have done for Sheffield Wednesday,"

"I promised that when I left I would have secured their financial future and I can look the fans in the eye and say that I have done that.

"They have a big desire to go to the Premier League and they want to put money into the club. They're not here to stay in the Championship.

"I didn't sell the club for the money or because I have to leave, I sold it because these people are more aggressive financially and they will do the job."

That financial aggression has been clearly evident since Mr Chansiris arrival, and there has been an investment in the club the likes of which we have never seen before. Mr Chansiri was quoted 5 years ago, on his takeover saying

"I am very excited at the prospect of taking over control from Milan,"

"I believe this club has huge potential and I can assure all our supporters that I will be working extremely hard to bring the success that I already sense from my short time in your city our supporters so desperately crave.

"My son Att, who was a mascot at the recent Blackpool game, is passionate about football and I know will be my inspiration in this project.

"I have made the same promise to him as I do our supporters, he will not let me forget this until we are back in the Premier League."

So far that promise of a Premier League return has continued to evade us, despite coming tantalisingly close in the first full season of Mr Chansiris chairmanship which culminated in that hugely disappointing day at Wembley.

As if to emphasise the under achievement our neighbours finished the same 2014/15 season that heralded Chansiris arrival in 5th place in League One, and dipped out (marvellously) to Swindon Town in the Play Off semi final stages. Since that time they have leapfrogged Wednesday and now sit just shy of the European places in the Premier League (despite severe boardroom wrangling and a court case to resolve ownership of the club).

The less said about them - the better.

In that same period our league status has yo-yo’d, and we’ve never really regained the playoff qualifying form of our early days under Carlos Carvalhal. 5 years after Mr Chansiris arrival we sit 10th in the Championship.

During Mr Chanisiris reign supporters have seen their own investment in football increase on a huge scale. Wednesday regularly top all the wrong League tables - cost of season tickets, cost of shirts, cost for away fans, costs for hospitality, costs for catering - literally ALL of the costs associated with watching football have Wednesday fans paying more. Even the cost of away games has gone up - as clubs regularly reciprocate the high costs of their own fans travelling to watch their teams at Hillsborough, meaning Wednesday fans are regularly charged the most to buy away tickets.

This hasn’t had too much impact on attendances - thankfully. The loyalty of Wednesday fans, severely tested during 20 years outside the top flight (the longest period in the clubs 150 year existence) remains - as one of the most enduring love affairs defies all belief. There has been little to cheer in that 20 year period - and yet our fans are as loyal as ever.

It cannot be denied that Mr Chansiri has invested huge sums of his own personal fortune into the club. Our clubs debt (to him) has risen consistently year on year - and although our accounts get more and more difficult to read (unless you put your hands to your face and read through your fingers) you have to give the Chairman credit for continuing to fund our (huge) losses. How much of those losses are down to the Chairmans (acknowledged) lack of experience in football are open to debate. It is widely suggested in football by commentators with better financial heads than I - that we do not engage anywhere near enough in player trading - bringing in older players and refusing to sell any at any kind of profit. This has left us with an ageing, and under achieving squad, relying on past glories (if failing to achieve promotion in a play off final can be classed as glory) and whom regularly still make up over 50% of our starting line-up.

And despite this lack of investment - our debt continues to rise. It could be argued that our debt is one of the few MASSIVE things about Wednesday these days. When Mr Chansiri took over 5 years ago - we started off in the black. According to our most recently submitted accounts (that were submitted late, and the accounting period extended) - our debt back then sat at slightly over £70m… In just a few very short years.

That debt figure is very scary. It absolutely dwarfs the amount that the club owed to the Inland Revenue which threatened its very existence. It also demonstrates the importance of Mr Chansiri continuing to fund our losses. And that figure is almost 2 years old. The next set of accounts will no doubt show that figure has risen some more as crowds continue to head the wrong way, and it could be argued wages have gone the wrong way too (albeit they have risen massively (more on that in a minute). Our P&L really is more of just an ‘L’ - our losses accumulate season upon season, and have risen well above the figure allowed by the EFL under the FFP (P&S) thresholds - and this has necessited a paper transaction - moving ownership of the stadium to Mr Chansiri in a ‘sale’ and leaseback loophole thats also been employed by other clubs sailing close to the wind trying to compete with clubs relegated from the Premiership.

Its a real sadness that Hillsborough doesn’t really belong to the club anymore (not that it really did under the new ownership). Its even more sad that we have need to resort to accountancy jiggery pokery to cook our books in such a way. Our club hasn’t been well run, and that cannot be denied.

Ive placed the 2 graphs for P&L & wages together - because both emphasise the huge size of the commitment placed into our club by the Chairman in the last 5 years. To increase wages by such a huge amount, and oversee such losses in that period is partly related - but again demonstrates the personal commitment of Mr Chansiri on a financial level.

If I were his family I’d be urging him to stop urinating my legacy up a very steep wall.

For the time being Mr Chansiri appears to be very much invested in working through these very difficult times. Right now he is fighting EFL misconduct charges (alongside his FD John Redgate and former CEO Katien Meire) that could even see him banned from football (Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/12/02/exclusive-sheffield-wednesday-chairman-could-banned-football/) - and we further charges against the club that could lead to a rumoured 21 point deduction, or even demotion of the club.

Mr Chansiri continues to demand more and more from our fanbase too - and schemes like Club 1867 and a new 10 year season ticket have been launched. Who knows just how successful these will be given the huge financial undertaking they require from fans in a city that is one of the poorest regions to live in the UK.

Who knows just how long he will continue to fight against all of the odds. From a purely financial viewpoint, as fans, we have to hope that he will - as the alternative for Sheffield Wednesday could be extremely bleak indeed. Today - its hard to see how the club will achieve the promotion to the Premier League that all associated with us is so desperate to see us achieve.

The rest of this current season promises to be extremly exciting off the pitch - even if our form and tactics at home games prevents it being so thrilling ON the pitch.

Fingers crossed.

Note: I am not an accountant. The figures used in this article have been sourced from commentators on football finance (such as Price of Football and Swissramble) as well as from the SWFC accounts lodged at Companies House.