Sheffield Wednesday are on the cusp of a new takeover, and for the Championship outfit, it really can’t come soon enough.
The Owls were trailing 1-0 at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday before the match referee abandoned the game due to a waterlogged pitch.
The football is kind of paling into insignificance this season, however, with Wednesday desperate to oversee a takeover that should ignite a new Hillsborough era.
Henrik Pedersen is the current head coach and he’s been dealt some really bad cards this season, with Wednesday deducted another six points last week by the EFL.
Seeing the back of Dejphon Chansiri was a positive of this season’s shambolic campaign, and now it seems as though, the Wednesday takeover is going to cause some intrigue.
Sheffield Wednesday takeover will cause intrigue
Lots of high-profile people have expressed interest in the purchase of Wednesday, with Mike Ashley and Simon Jordan making enquiries.
With the preferred bidders likely to be chosen by the administrators in the coming weeks, we caught up with football finance expert, Adam Williams, who gave us some exciting information on the pending takeover.
He told Sheffield Wednesday News: “I was speaking to someone earlier today who said that it was quite serendipitous for the Football Regulator that HMRC issued a winding-up petition against Sheffield Wednesday before the regulator itself could legally get involved.
“From 12 December, the regulator officially launches and will have the power to oust owners it deems unsuitable. This was always seen as a light at the end of the tunnel for Wednesday fans.
“Ultimately, however, it hasn’t come to that and the process of removing Chansiri, appointing the administrators and conducting the takeover auction kicked in before the regulator.
“For the regulator, there were questions about how ready they actually would have been to set the ball rolling there. They have only just got their team together and, understandably, it will probably take some time before they are a really effective force.
“So they might be thanking their fellow government agency HMRC for taking it out of their hands. With the controversy around David Kogan’s appointment and the allegations of cronyism with the Labour Party, it is probably a distraction that they could have done without so early in their operations.
“When Wednesday do name their next owner, the regulator will need to give its blessing. From the names we’ve seen mentioned so far, there aren’t going to be any issues with any of them passing the test, but it will be interesting to see how the formalities play out regardless.
“It will probably be the first takeover in the regulator era, so every other club in England will be watching with interest. They’ll be looking at the extra costs involved for the club and the prospective buyer, how much of a burden the bureaucracy is, at what stage the regulator actually gets involved – formally and informally – in the process and so on. In that sense, I think you could say that this is one of the most significant takeovers in the English game. Just as people talk about the first million-pound player, club executives will be talking about the first regulator-approved takeover.”
Wednesday administrators need to get huge call right
This is really important for the future of Sheffield Wednesday and ultimately, things have to be taken care of when it comes to the administrators.
Whoever gets the nod to be the preferred bidder knows that Wednesday will almost certainly be a League One club next year and an immediate recruitment plan will need to be drawn up.
It’s fascinating that so many clubs will have a vested interest in the Wednesday situation and it will be intriguing to see what does happen when things get sorted in the boardroom.
Wednesday have been mismanaged for many years and now, it will be exciting to see Hillsborough rocking once again as they embark on the long journey back as a sleeping giant of the English game.