Sheffield Wednesday: WANdisco board 'not informed' of £560,000 EyUp sponsorship deal with club

Wednesday, who have just been promoted to the Championship, will be wearing shirts this season sponsored by EyUp – an organisation run by David Richards, the former WANdisco CEO and chair, and his wife Jane.

EyUp was set up to offer training and opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are under-represented in the tech sector.

The new shirts were revealed by Sheffield Wednesday during their promotion play-off parade on May 31 and in mid-June the club confirmed that EyUp was the “new principal sponsor” for its shirts for this season.

But it has now been revealed WANdisco is paying the cost of the sponsorship.

The data migration firm, which is based in Sheffield and California, made a statement to the London Stock Exchange this week to say that its board had not been informed about the Sheffield Wednesday shirt deal nor other agreements with The David and Jane Richards Family Foundation and EyUp.

The statement said the issue related to disclosure rules governing the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which is a specialised part of the London Stock Exchange.

It said: “Each of these transactions are deemed to be a related party transaction pursuant to AIM Rule 13 of the AIM Rule for Companies.

“The Board was not informed of these related party transactions at the time and are therefore unable to provide a comment on the fair and reasonableness of each transaction.”

WANdisco’s recently published annual report said that during 2022, the group agreed to pay $362,691 to sponsor Sheffield Wednesday for the 2023/24 season on behalf of EyUp Skills Limited.

It added: “There is also an additional $362,691 sponsorship payable which is contingent on certain post year-end outcomes.”

On Companies House, the most recent accounts for EyUp Skills up to April 30, 2022 showed it had net assets of £1,555 and zero employees.

Other transactions highlighted by WANdisco as ones its board were not informed about included the payment of $19,760 worth of invoices to EyUp Skills during 2022.

It also flagged that in January 2022, the group paid invoices totalling $49,005 for a Laptops for Kids initiative linked to The David and Jane Richards Family Foundation. The money was repaid by the foundation in May 2022.

The annual report also said that in 2021 the group had paid invoices to third party suppliers for $461,451 for the Laptops for Kids initiative with the money repaid by the foundation the same year. The report said: “This disclosure was omitted in error from the prior year financial statements.”

Mr Richards left WANdisco in early April this year after it was revealed in March that the company may have overstated its expected revenue for 2022 by millions of dollars. The issue emerged after being discovered by Mr Richards and then chief financial officer Erik Miller.

A subsequent investigation found that an unnamed single sales employee was responsible.

The investigation found recognised revenue of $14.9m and sales bookings of $115m were “false” and should have been $9.7m and $11.4m respectively. The company has since recorded a $31.6m loss for 2022.

Mr Richards and Sheffield Wednesday were contacted for comment.