This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal comments from FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more.
Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has alleged that he was putting together a group to bid for Sheffield Wednesday but withdrew because he did not want Dejphon Chansiri to benefit financially.
There’s no doubt that there was a lot of interest in buying the Owls after the club went into administration, and Wednesday fans should find out who the next owner will be in the coming weeks, assuming all goes as planned.
However, one name can be ruled out: the aforementioned Jordan.
Jordan claimed that he was looking to form a consortium to make an offer to the administrators, and that while the necessary finances were raised as proof of funds, he ultimately decided against the takeover idea because he didn’t want the club’s current owner, Dejphon Chansiri, who is also one of the club’s creditors, to receive any money from the sale, which he is more than likely owed.
“I put together a consortium of very well-heeled people, who proved up £50m to have a look at Sheffield Wednesday,”
“It’s a club that I’ve always pushed for because I believe it’s a major club waiting to happen again if it had appropriate administration and ownership, as well as proper direction and discipline in rebuilding it as a football club.
“But it is heavily contested. I’ve decided not to go ahead with it because I don’t like the idea of rewarding Chansiri by forcing him to pay a large portion of the money that he needs to avoid being sanctioned again under EFL regulations – because if you don’t pay the ’25p in the Pound’, you’ll eventually receive another 15-point penalty.
“I would be quite happy to have the ownership of Sheffield Wednesday and have a 15-point penalty in this season because it doesn’t make any difference, you’re going to get relegated and not have it next year.”
“We haven’t really lost anything” – Sheffield Wednesday response to Simon Jordan revelation
Football League World asked our resident Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit Patrick McKenna if he’s disappointed that Jordan would not pursue his takeover bid, and it’s safe to say he would have welcomed him at Hillsborough.
“Certainly with regard to Simon Jordan, he would have brought a bit of knowledge to any consortium,” Patrick told the news station.
“He may not have been directly involved in football since 2010, but he will not have lost what knowledge he does have, and he has remained connected to the game.
“Undoubtedly, he would have had some expertise, and I believe it would have been a beneficial effect. However, he ultimately decided not to proceed with a takeover. If he didn’t want to proceed with it, there was no need in worrying about it.”
However, Patrick was baffled as to why Jordan would even consider forming such a group because the EFL’s criteria for compensating creditors are well-established.
“It’s a bit disappointing that he cited the fact that Chansiri would get money as a reason to not buy the club, when he would know that this would be the case under the current rules regarding administration and football, so I don’t know why he would have looked to put together a consortium while knowing that this would be the case,” according to McKenna.
“Ultimately, a new owner will emerge in the coming weeks, and it will not be a consortium involving Simon Jordan, so I believe he could have brought something, but it is not a disaster that his consortium withdrew.
“We haven’t really lost anything since we didn’t have him involved at the club in the first place.”
Simon Jordan has expertise, but his stint at Crystal Palace was fraught with scandal.
The EFL’s administrative rules exist for a good purpose.
Prior to the implementation of the 25p-in-a-pound rule in 2015, it was extremely damaging to the game’s reputation for high-profile cases of clubs going bankrupt and unsecured creditors being railroaded into accepting offers of a few pennies in the pound, especially when these often included organisations such as the St John’s Ambulance, which provides medical assistance on match days, and local businesses. This had grown much more troublesome because the rules also required “football creditors” to be paid fully.
All of these rules are intended to find a balance between the best interests of individual clubs and the game as a whole. The 10-point deduction for entering administration (it’s nine in the Premier League and has since been increased to twelve in the EFL) was implemented at the start of the 2004-05 season in response to criticism that it was too easy for clubs to enter administration to have their debts written off, and that the lack of a sanction from the League gave an unfair advantage to clubs that overspent their way into severe financial difficulty.
Jordan’s stint at Crystal Palace was marked by controversy and did not end well. A dispute with former manager Iain Dowie ended up in the High Court, where Jordan won before settling out of court, but Dowie was granted the opportunity to appeal. His tenure at Selhurst Park ended in January 2010, when Palace went into administration.
With 25 years of experience in football and the football media, Jordan could have contributed significantly to any consortium in which he was involved.
But, given the level of interest in Sheffield Wednesday since the club went into administration, it’s also true that the choice of one company not t
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