The next three weeks could be crucial for Sheffield Wednesday, as they look to complete a takeover which will secure the club’s future.
David Storch and his Arise Capital Partners consortium have preferred bidder status and Sky Sports News has been told they are still determined to buy the club despite a public statement on Wednesday night calling on the EFL for greater flexibility.
The new buyers and the club’s administrators are working towards the paperwork being signed in the next 14 days by May 1.
Meanwhile, the EFL is continuing to work through Storch’s application for compliance with the Owners and Directors test.
But if the deal isn’t completed by May 5, when the Independent Football Regulator begins work, this will bring stiffer statutory hurdles to overcome – which will inevitably mean further delays.
Another looming deadline is the end of this current Championship season. Once the final round of fixtures are played on May 2, there is a huge drop-off in revenue, with no matchday income for three months.
That will hit Wednesday hard, as the administrators Begbies Traynor battle to keep the club afloat whilst in ownership-limbo.
Before the start of next season, the EFL needs to know that Wednesday are able to complete all of their matches for 2026/27. Those fixtures are released on June 25.
Storch, we can reveal, has already paid almost £2m as a deposit to guarantee his exclusivity to complete a takeover worth just under £20m, and the deadline has now passed for that money to be recouped if he pulls out.
But James Bord lost a deposit twice as big in late February, when he walked away after realising the scale of investment needed at Hillsbrough.
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Highlights of the Sky Bet Championship match between Coventry City and Sheffield Wednesday.
Storch, too, is aware of how much maintenance and repair work is required at the stadium which, sources have told us, is in a very poor state after being under-funded for a decade.
Storch’s statement focused less on Hillsbrough’s infrastructure problems. Instead, it criticised the EFL for pushing ahead with plans for a 15-point deduction next season, if the new ownership doesn’t pay all of the non-football creditors 25p in the pound.
However, it is clear that Storch – and all of the other bidders – knew the situation when they made their offers to buy the club, and the strict EFL rules associated with takeovers.
It was clear from the start that, unless former owner Dejphon Chansiri is paid £16m as a quarter of the £64m loans he gave the club (or that he agrees a deal with the new owners to waive all or part of the money he is owed) those rules would be breached and a 15-point penalty would be mandatory. The rules around takeovers were agreed and ratified by a vote involving all the league clubs.
Sky Sports News revealed a month ago that none of the parties looking to buy Wednesday is prepared to hand over the full amount to Chansiri, and so a points deduction looked inevitable. The EFL Board does have discretion to waive or amend those penalties in exceptional circumstances, and that is what Storch’s public appeals for sympathy are all about.
“What makes this situation particularly difficult is that it is entirely unique,” his statement said. “A significant portion of the club’s debt sits with its former owner who has not agreed to write down or restructure that debt.
“We have made repeated attempts, through the administrators, to engage with Mr Chansiri in order to find a constructive resolution. Those requests have gone unanswered.”
Former Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri
That is an appeal for compromise. A public appeal for Wednesday to be made an exception. It is perfectly understandable that, if you’re paying £20m for a football club, you don’t want to hand an additional £15m on top to the previous, discredited owner.
But it is a choice any would-be buyer has a choice to make: Pay Chansiri the money he is owed (or strike a deal with him), or take the 15-point penalty. It states clearly in the EFL’s insolvency rules: “No club should gain (or seek to gain) any advantage over other clubs … by not paying all its creditors in full at all times.”
The EFL would argue that the single most important part of their role as rule-enforcers, is to apply those rules evenly and fairly to all member clubs.
When Wigan were bought out five years ago by Phoenix 2021, they avoided a 15-point penalty by ensuring all non-football creditors got 25p in the pound. Similarly, Derby County kept their points tally in 2022 when new owner David Clowes met the same criteria.
It would be very difficult for the EFL to justify to Wigan and Derby, or the rest of the EFL clubs, any exemption handed to Wednesday’s next owners just because they don’t like the previous owner. Whatever criticism there is of Chansiri and the way he ran the club, he is a rightful creditor and is not currently prepared to negotiate on his debt, having invested over £150m of his own money in the club during his decade in charge.
The biggest fear for everyone involved is if Storch pulls out. He isn’t the only party interested in buying Wednesday, but there is currently no other credible buyer prepared to match his price – though the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust claims they have received reassurances from Storch that he would proceed in any case.
The Trust also says that Storch has made it clear he will challenge the EFL legally, to try to fight the points deduction.
James Silverwood of the Supporters Trust has told the Sheffield Star: “The first thing to communicate with all Sheffield Wednesday supporters is that the trust has been fortunate enough to, in the last 48 hours, have some dialogue with David Storch directly and they absolutely will be proceeding with the purchase of Sheffield Wednesday regardless of whether the EFL apply minus 15 points at the start of next season or not.”
Otherwise, it would be difficult for a new buyer to step in at this late stage and complete a deal before next season’s fixtures are released in June.
