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Premiership dream left in tatters as expensive 'stars' fail on pitch
FIFTEEN years ago it was all about cup finals, European football and international stars like Chris Waddle and Des Walker. Today, it's all about a desperate search for investment, scratching around for loan signings and managing debts totalling £27m.
Plenty of clubs have experienced spectacular falls from grace after thinking the riches of the Sky TV era meant normal rules of financial prudence no longer applied.
But Sheffield Wednesday's decline appears more entrenched, a club stuck in financial quicksands with no-one dragging them free.
Click here to read about the mounting pressure on the takeover.
Click here to read about the reasons for the takeover delay.
Click here to read about Geoff Sheard's background.
An attempt to capitalise on football's boom time – with the involvement of investment bank Charterhouse in 1997 – ended up saddling the club with major debts when the bank decided the sums didn't add up after all. Under the stewardship of then chairman Dave Richards, Wednesday continued to spend millions on players – few approaching the ability of the likes of Waddle – in a desperate attempt to maintain Premiership status before a seemingly inevitable relegation in 2000.
Local casino operator Dave Allen helped bail the club out in 2001 by buying out Charterhouse, along with local businessmen Geoff Hulley and Keith Addy. He gifted a 10 per cent stake in the club to a fans' trust, now called Wednesdayite, to ensure the controlling interest of the three stayed just below the 30 per cent threshold which triggers an automatic bid for the entire shareholding.
But weighed down by players' contracts unsustainable on Championship finances, Wednesday's fall accelerated and by 2003 the club slipped into the third tier of English football.
Although a return to the Championship was secured in 2005, the Owls remain paralysed by debt and unable to fund a team ready to return to the Premiership.
Even worse, the club appears rudderless since the resignation as chairman of Dave Allen in November last year. Nearly a year later, the position of chairman remains unfilled.
The club's arrangement with the Co-op bank is stretched to its 23m limit with Wednesday seemingly stuck with the prospect of selling their best players to keep the bank happy. With morale slipping and gates falling to 17,000, a famous old club desperately needs a fresh injection of money and hope.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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