James Bord has revealed the identities of the investors he is looking to buy Sheffield Wednesday alongside, and how they plan to go about reviving the League One-bound club.

The Owls' administrators announced on Christmas Eve they had a preferred bidder to take the club forward after the financial meltdown under previous chairman Dejphon Chansiri, but never revealed who it was.

Poker player Bord was always thought to be the lead figure in the consortium, named Short Circuit, and he has now confirmed as much, along with the identity of his partners.

Bord's involvement is controversial because he and his data analysis firm advised Sheffield United during both 2025 transfer windows, which went badly for the Blades. He will continue in the same vein at Hillsborough.

"The consortium is a privately-funded group of investors led by James Bord and Felix Roemer," said a statement from Short Circuit. "The consortium focuses on long-term, responsible investment supported solely by its own capital, with an emphasis on stable governance, operational discipline and data-informed decision making.

"It brings together complementary expertise across technology, analytics and high growth ventures to support sustainable performance in the organisations with which it engages.

"The consortium supports a long-term sustainable ownership of this historic club and is committed to preserving and enhancing its legacy. It aims to strengthen Sheffield Wednesday to enable the club to regain its position at the pinnacle of the game."

Short Circuit has put down a non-refundable deposit to fund the club's meantime running costs whilst the trio go through the Football League's owners and director's test. They will have to pass that to be allowed to run the club.

NEW OWNERS: Short Circuit are hoping to complete a deal to buy Sheffield Wednesday and their Hillsborough stadium (Image: Ashley Allen/Getty Images)

placeholder image — NEW OWNERS: Short Circuit are hoping to complete a deal to buy Sheffield Wednesday and their Hillsborough stadium (Image: Ashley Allen/Getty Images)

Bord is the owner of Dunfermline Athletic, fifth in the Scottish Championship, and has stakes in Spanish second-tier side Cordoba and Septemvri Sofia, in the relegation zone in Bulgaria's top division.

Bord founded football analytics company Short Circuit Science, which advised the Blades after their takeover by COH Sports at Christmas 2024.

They made three permanent signings in their first transfer window, the most expensive being Tom Cannon, bought for a fee thought to be in the region of £10m to push the club to promotion. Cannon scored once in the second half of the campaign, on the day the Blades missed out on automatic promotion, but has four goals in his last nine games, a run started when he found the net against Sheffield Wednesday.

In the summer the Blades sacked Chris Wilder as manager and replaced him with Ruben Selles, signing 13 new players and selling or loaning eight.

The Blades are 16th in the Championship, nine points outside the play-off places having lost the five league games (and a cup tie) Selles oversaw before being sacked.

Much was made of the artificial intelligence-led signings of Jefferson Caceres, Christian Nwachukwu, Mihail Polendakov and Ehije Ukaki.

Ukaki made the solitary senior appearance to date by the quartet in the League Cup and Caceres, signed in January, was sold to Dunfermline in August.

German-born Roemer is listed as a entrepreneur with history in the finance technology, gambling and software industries. He is thought to be based in Malta.

Oxford University and Imperial College London graduate Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamil is named as the consortium's chief executive. Said to be a member of the Jordanian royal family, he is on the board of Imperial Sports, a sports investment and management company based in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Both have previously worked on Bord's football projects.

"While we recognise that there will still be many questions to be answered, we are unable to engage fully at this stage or provide a running commentary on the process," said the consortium's statement. "We recognise the frustration that this may cause fans of this great football club but hope they understand the limitations placed on the consortium at this particular point in time."

The Owls are bottom of the Championship and with a 32-point gap to safety with 21 matches still to play, relegation to League One is a near-certainty, so Short Circuit's job will be to rebuild them from there.