Former Sheffield Wednesday owner Chansiri to receive ‘nothing’ despite £63m claim
Dejphon Chansiri, the former owner of Sheffield Wednesday, will receive no money from the administration of the club, an accountant in charge of the process has told The Yorkshire Post.
Former Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri will receive nothing from the club’s administration, those behind the process have confirmed, despite his claiming to be owed £63m when the club entered administration earlier this year.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club entered administration in October of last year following a turbulent period under the leadership of Mr Chansiri, a Thai businessman who bought the club in 2015.
In May of this year, following a series of dramatic events, the club was bought out by a consortium headed by American executive, David Storch.
Following the club entering administration last year, documents posted to Companies House revealed that Mr Chansiri had submitted a claim stating he was owed just over £63m under a “director’s loan account”.
Policy from the English Football League (EFL) states that football creditors – those owed money as part of an administration – must be paid 25p in the pound when a new owner takes over the club.
As part of Sheffield Wednesday’s administration, however, a deal was reached between the EFL, the new owner and administrators which would have seen Mr Chansiri paid a set amount of money based on the club’s potential future promotions.
As first revealed last month by The Yorkshire Post’s sister title, the Sheffield Star, however, Mr Chansiri missed the deadline to agree to this deal, first pushing the deadline back and then responding around five minutes after the new deadline had passed.
At the time of these revelations coming to light last month, the situation was unclear regarding if or how much Mr Chansiri could now receive.
But speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Paul Stanley, managing partner at financial advisory firm BTG, who worked as an administrator for Sheffield Wednesday, revealed that Mr Chansiri will now receive “nothing”.
Mr Stanley said: “The collaboration between us, the EFL and the purchaser got the club to the other side, and Chansiri is getting nothing now. It's too late, and he's getting nothing.
“He didn’t come back at first, and then the offer lapsed, and his team came back five minutes later saying ‘our client thinks he might want to do the deal now’.
“But he had missed the boat. It had gone. Once the boats left the dock, there is no world where it reverses back. It's gone, and the purchasers have said it's gone.”
The amount of money Mr Chansiri would have received through the lapsed deal has not been disclosed.
The Yorkshire Post made attempts to contact Mr Chansiri through Thai Union, the Thai seafood group which is controlled by his family.
Mr Stanley added that he did not believe that the £63m claim put forward by the former director should have been applicable to the EFL’s rule that creditors receive 25p in the pound.
He said: “The policy was brought in to protect local suppliers, the local community, people supplying the pies, the meat, the beer. All the people that supply things on a match day.
“In reality, me as an accountant, I would say you’re not really an unsecured creditor for that number. It's your club, that's your capital you’ve put in, you've got no prospect of ever getting it back because that's what football ownership is about.
“Very very few people make a profit on it and get their money back. This is money that has been lost, that you’ve gambled on and got it wrong.”
Mr Stanley also told The Yorkshire Post how Sheffield Wednesday was just days away from complete collapse when the sale with the clubs new owners went through last month.