Preston’s Championship rivals face £2m HMRC bill as owner begs fans to ‘save club’

Preston North End’s Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday are in hot water right now as a result of serious cash flow issues involving club owner Dejphon Chansiri. The Owls have fallen behind with HMRC payments and are also at risk of not being able to pay full-time staff this month.

In an exclusive interview with our sister site The Star, Chansiri has admitted that ‘money is not in the bank’ right now and has called upon Wednesday fans to ‘save their club’ out of their own pocket. The Thai businessman has requested supporters who ‘call themselves owners’ contribute £2 million to settle the current financial concerns.

Chansiri also confirmed that Wednesday’s HMRC debt, which was due to be paid on October 23rd, is still outstanding and for every day without payment, the club edges closer to a transfer embargo, which will prevent them from paying any sort of transfer or loan fee for three windows.

Full-time staff may also be impacted as another knock-on effect of Chansiri’s cash flow problems. The club owner has said part-time employees will be paid correctly, but those earning higher salaries on both the playing and non-playing side of the club are at risk of being underpaid or not paid at all this month.

“If 20,000 people gave £100 then it’s £2m, and it’d be clear — so we can finish it. That would cover everything, HMRC and the wages,” Chansiri told The Star. “That would need to be done before November 10th if they don’t want to pass the 30 days, but that means that there can be no next time. It’d need to be before to make it safe — if it was on the fifth then there would be 10 days left… If we were to hit 30 days then we’ll get a ban for three windows.”

The Owls owner stated that with no cash in the bank, he is unable to pay the outstanding fees but has categorically denied that he is deliberately witholding funds from the club in order to assert his power and financial importance. Chansiri also stressed that he is ‘not broke’ but the problem lies within his personal cash flow.

“All over the world there is a shortage of cash flow because of the economy, of Covid, of Russia, Israel. This is normal in business now and I need to accept that because the club relies on my money. The people who owe me money in business have not paid on time because they are short of cash flow too. It is a domino, it will affect more people. What can I do? We prepare but the money has not come. If they do not do that, what can I do? This situation is happening all over the world.

“Those who say it is their club, when it was clear we had an issue with HMRC, people came out and said ‘Chairman, you need to take responsibility to pay’, that if we don’t pay we have to sell ‘our club’ — why do they say ‘our club’? I never heard any fan say ‘we need to prepare to save our club’, they just say I have to leave. It’s funny, they say they are owners and I am custodian.

“We try to generate money for the club as best as we can. We need to try to get money but the negative fans don’t help. I am not blaming fans. I am explaining they don’t help. People [potential sponsors] don’t know us, they just see us on social media, so why are they going to sponsor us when they just see rubbish all the time? We need fans in bad times as well as good.”