Sheffield Wednesday’s administrator, Kris Wigfield, has revealed when the club may expect to be taken over.
The Owls have been in an administrative condition since late October, when former owner Dejphon Chansiri was unable to pay a £1 million HMRC payment.
Despite being struck with an automatic 12-point punishment, which effectively guarantees their relegation to League One, Wednesday had a slew of interested parties pursuing a takeover bid.
This list includes Mike Ashley and John McEvoy, who are both allegedly very interested in becoming the Owls’ future owner and are still in the running following a call for offers by the soft deadline of November 21.
With the identity of Sheffield Wednesday’s next owner still unknown, Kris Wigfield, one of the administrators in charge of the sale, has revealed what the process now looks like.
Kris Wigfield delivers a Sheffield Wednesday takeover update.
Despite lying at the bottom of the Championship and 18 points from safety, Wednesday fans remain optimistic about the club’s future.
According to a former Manchester City finance advisor who is associated with one of the groups, all of the interested parties have substantial pockets, therefore the Owls might soon be back in the Championship and competing for the top of the league.
Wigfield discussed how the takeover process is currently progressing ahead of the Steel City Derby and when Hillsborough fans may expect to know who will lead them forward into the future.
“We’ve had lots of interest,” Wigfield told ITV Sport. “About 80 parties expressed interest, and we are now in the process of receiving offers.
“We received offers on Friday and expect a couple more on Monday, so we’ll be at a point where there are several interested parties who have made reasonable offers, so we’ll be trying to narrow it down to one preferred bidder over the next two weeks.”
“By the 5th of December hopefully we can announce who that is.”
Wigfield followed up on these comments with a further update to supporters via the club website, in which he discussed offers made for the club while also admitting that additional point penalties may be in the works.
“We have received a number of good bids for the club, and over the coming days we will be considering them in detail,” stated Wigfield.
“As I mentioned on Friday, we hope to grant preferred bidder status by December 5th.
“At the same time, I have to be honest: there may be more difficult news coming, including the possibility of a further points deduction. I want to be upfront about that because our supporters deserve transparency.”
Sheffield Wednesday supporters will be anxiously expecting December 5, following Kris Wigfield’s comments.
If Wednesday supporters weren’t already looking forward to the end of the takeover process, they will be after Wigfield’s comments.
Given that 80 parties were initially interested in purchasing the Steel City side, Wigfield and the other administrators involved in the selling process on Wednesday must have had to choose just the best choices to continue discussing the sale.
As a result, whomever emerges victorious in the final phases will be more than qualified to lead the Yorkshire team ahead financially, which will be great news for the Hillsborough fans.
Although further point deductions will only ensure Wednesday’s exit from League One next season, the positive aspects of a new takeover should outweigh any other bad effects of Chansiri’s reign.
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