Dejphon Chansiri's crisis call to Sheffield Wednesday fans "unusual" but indicative of wider problem, says EFL chief Rick Parry

The league chief also confirmed there are no concerns over the running of the Championship club because, despite Chansiri’s stark warning, the Owls chairman then eradicated the immediate fears 48 hours later by settling players’ wages and the tax bill. The EFL put the Owls under a transfer embargo for not paying HMRC on time, but this has since been lifted.

For Parry, Chansiri’s outburst, while “unusual”, points to the wider problem in football of Championship clubs chasing the Premier League dream in an increasingly uneven financial playing field. Speaking at the launch of the EFL and SkyBet’s Building Foundations initiative at Barnsley Football Club on Wednesday, Parry said: "The game is one of constant emotions, highs and lows, and we never want to lose that.

"As far as we’re concerned the club is meeting its obligations, that is the most important thing. For all the fears; paying the players, paying the taxman, that’s the starting point from our point of view. It does highlight what we’ve been saying for three years, we’re pushing to make clubs sustainable.

"We don’t want clubs on a knife-edge, we want them to be able to compete, face a full season without facing crises, which is why we’ve been supportive of the Government’s initiative to bring about a regulator because the game is broken in financial terms. There’s too big a gulf between top and bottom, particularly in the Championship where pressure on clubs to chase the dream is enormous.

"You’ve got clubs with massive parachute payments and clubs with very little, then clubs do things that are stretching them.

"Across the Championship wages have been in excess of turnover, debt across the Championship clubs is over £1bn, it’s the system that needs to change and then there'll be less pressure on owners to dip into their own pocket all the time.”

On Chansiri’s comments in which he implored the Owls fanbase to help settle debts, Parry added: “It was unusual, but we have got a broad church, a wide variety of different owners. Is it something that on reflection he might regret? Who knows. It’s obviously him expressing his frustration and I guess in a way showing that he also actually cares.”

Legislation intended to lead to the creation of a new regulator was included in Tuesday’s King’s Speech. The regulator will operate a licensing system for professional clubs in the top five tiers of English football, with the key objective of ensuring clubs are financially sustainable, responsibly run and accountable to their fans.

The importance of clubs to the communities they serve was underlined in an EFL impact report published by the league in January, which showed more than 840,000 people engaged in EFL club community activities over almost 580,000 hours across the 2021-22 season, delivering over £865million worth of social value to towns and cities across the country.

Clubs’ ability to continue doing that valuable work has been boosted by the launch of the Building Foundations Fund by EFL’s title sponsor SkyBet.

The gambling organisation is offering all 72 clubs £10,000 in the first instance and the chance to bid for a slice of the remaining £280,000 in the first year’s instalment of £1m.

Thereafter, SkyBet have committed to putting £1m a year into the fund over the next five years. SkyBet ambassador Jeff Stelling will agree the winning bids across a range of categories, such as improving local sporting facilities or promoting the physical and social benefits of the game.

This week is a designated ‘EFL Week of Action’ to highlight the social benefit provided by club community organisations in the towns and cities they serve.

Parry said: “SkyBet have put much-needed revenues into the game, community is incredibly important. Our 72 clubs are the beating heart of their communities. What they do day in, day out makes a massive impact.”