Sheffield Wednesday players call their friendly OFF, wages are late, the league opener is under threat, and the EFL are concerned.
The Daily Mail’s Mike Keegan reported just how concerning the situation is at Sheffield Wednesday, who now face uncertainty ahead of their Championship opener against Leicester City on August 10th.
Concerns mount over the club’s ability to fulfill the fixture due to financial difficulties, including late wage payments for four of the past five months, leading players to refuse to travel.
Burnley offered to cover accommodation costs, but the gesture hasn’t resolved the issue.
Manager Danny Rohl has left, and owner Dejphon Chansiri claims he is trying to sell the club. Several players have had contracts canceled, and new deals for out-of-contract players are stalled.
🦉SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY IN CRISIS
🔵Players decide to call Burnley friendly OFF
⚪️Wages late for 4/5 month
🔵Some now worried Leicester opener under threat
⚪️EFL ‘extremely concerned’https://t.co/vOpx439uvJ #swfc— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) July 31, 2025
Discussing Sheffield Wednesday on 5 Live Breakfast & the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning (with Clive Betts MP). Listen below #SWFC pic.twitter.com/pIZfgGh56o
— Rob Staton (@robstaton) August 1, 2025
Additionally, Sheffield Council declared the 9,000-seat North Stand unsafe, barring its use for home games. The EFL is “extremely concerned” and in close contact with the club, which declined to comment.
Sheffield Wednesday’s players have boycotted a friendly match against Burnley due to unpaid July wages, marking the third consecutive month of delayed payments.
The club, under a transfer embargo for unpaid fees, faces financial difficulties, with owner Dejphon Chansiri rejecting takeover bids.
Assistant Henrik Pedersen, now head coach, urged fans to stay united. The squad is thin, with only 15 senior players, including one goalkeeper, and no new signings due to sanctions.
The North Stand at Hillsborough is closed due to structural issues, and key players like Djeidi Gassama, Josh Windass, and Barry Bannan have left or seen contracts expire.
Andy Giddings (30th July): “Per sources, we understand communication has been made to Sheffield Wednesday players informing them that they will not be paid on time for their July wages. We believe there is a possibility they could refuse to play as a consequence. Wages for March, May and June were previously not paid on time.”
Rob Staton (30th July): Per multiple sources, believe it has been communicated to at least some non-footballing staff at Sheffield Wednesday that they won’t be paid their July wages on time. Previously happened for May & June. As reported earlier by Andy Giddings, players have been told the same #SWFC”
Andy Giddings (31st July): “Understand some of the senior players have now been paid, but at the minute it appears not all of them. Along with – as reported by Joe Crann – the scholars. Assuming it’s the players they want to keep.”
🗣️”It’s getting me down because I’m Wednesday through and through”
84-year-old Bill, who sits in a disabled seat in the North Stand, shares his frustration at the current state of the club.
Listen back to the show in full 👉https://t.co/oEMpS7I7Y7#SWFC | @BBCSheffield pic.twitter.com/0UXto2OJ5W
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) July 30, 2025
Rob Staton (31st July): “Henrik Pedersen confirmed as Sheffield Wednesday boss. He inherits a threadbare squad who appear to be at the end of their tether, understandably, about unpaid wages at #SWFC.
“It’s now three months in a row where people employed by Sheffield Wednesday have not been paid their wages on time. People in some cases are struggling to pay their monthly bills. Worrying what will happen every time the next pay day comes around. This cannot continue #SWFC
“Have heard the same as @AlexMiller91 about hotel rooms for Sheffield Wednesday players at Leicester. If they want to stay over the night before, as is typical, it appears they would have to pay for their own rooms. Otherwise it’s a coach there and back on the day. #SWFC”
Rob Staton (1st August): “Understand Max Lowe has handed his notice in at Sheffield Wednesday. Belief is he will depart by the 15th August. #SWFC”
🚨Understand Wednesday’s friendly at Burnley this weekend has been cancelled.
Owls players have followed-through on a refusal to play amid ongoing payment issues and wider problems at the club.
Full story inc further context on Leicester trip👇https://t.co/O8K5vVQF5y#SWFC🦉
— Alex Miller (@AlexMiller91) July 31, 2025
Like @SportGids1, I’ve been told that some #SWFC players have now been paid, as have the club’s teenage scholars…
It’s by no means a majority who have been paid, and it remains to be seen when everyone will get their wages. https://t.co/ZHWA4oYEiy 🦉⚽️
— Joe Crann (@YesWeCrann) July 31, 2025
Understand some of the senior players have now been paid, but at the minute it appears not all of them.
Along with – as reported by @YesWeCrann – the scholars.
Assuming it’s the players they want to keep. #swfc | @footballheaven
— Andy Giddings (@SportGids1) July 31, 2025
BBC Radio Sheffield reporter Rob Staton wrote: “We understand the players aren’t prepared to play in a training match against Burnley. Will they do the same for the league opener against Leicester in just over a week’s time? That would make national headlines and would be a hugely significant statement if it happens.
“How Pedersen manages this situation is hard to imagine. What can he do? He might be left with what amounts to an under-21 side to pick from.
“The Championship is an unforgiving league. Wednesday could face a points deduction in the future after they and owner Dejphon Chansiri were charged by the EFL. They’re already clear favourites to go down.
“Simply put, he might be left hoping a takeover happens soon and that until then he can just about keep things ticking along. There are interested parties out there but it all comes down to one man. Is Chansiri prepared to sell and if so, at a reasonable price?
“Until that happens Sheffield Wednesday appear destined to continue being a chaotic mess, creating an incredibly difficult situation for Pedersen to navigate.”
Understand that the EFL are considering withholding money from Sheffield Wednesday – TV money, for instance – in order to pay off some of the club’s debts.
They have the power to do so as per Article 48 of their rules and regulations: https://t.co/rdi7Nb7G56 #SWFC 🦉⚽️
— Joe Crann (@YesWeCrann) July 31, 2025
🚨Understand Wednesday’s friendly at Burnley this weekend has been cancelled.
Owls players have followed-through on a refusal to play amid ongoing payment issues and wider problems at the club.
Full story inc further context on Leicester trip👇https://t.co/O8K5vVQF5y#SWFC🦉
— Alex Miller (@AlexMiller91) July 31, 2025
🚨Understand Wednesday players are considering booking their own hotel rooms ahead of their season opener at Leicester City.
Told cash-strapped Owls drawing up plans to make 70-mile trip day of game, raising concerns over preparation.
Story👇https://t.co/FzWSD9fEsw#SWFC🦉
— Alex Miller (@AlexMiller91) July 31, 2025
Carl the Sheffield Wednesday fan, gave a passionate call to BBC Sheffield: “I can’t get it out of my brain. I seem to be going around the whole time when I’m walking the dog or even in work. I just can’t get the thing off my mind.
“And I was totally and utterly, I jumped up when you started the programme by saying the strike is the only thing. Sheffield Wednesday, if nobody’s been paid and the EFL who are sitting on their hands, let’s be fair, they’re great at giving out embargoes and points deduction, but they’re not looking after the football club.
“In fact, who are these faceless EFL? If we want our MP to go down, not sit up in parliament, we want to go down and attack them.
“They’re letting the whole club go down and today Jeff Stelling and Alan Pardew were on, hate to mention another station but you know.
“They said this is setting an example now for other clubs and lots of clubs evidently are losing a lot of money so they never know when the owner and one man ownership should be the future Pardew said this, always get what he’s won, one man owns the club and then we have what’s happening at Morecambe, it happened with that lady, I think you did you do that interview Robert, that lady from Reading, she was brilliant and they just got out of jail at the right moment when your man was found to be not a fit and proper owner.
“Now if we go on strike because nobody’s being paid, then what’s the really EFL do? Why aren’t Sheffield Wednesday playing?
“Well there’s nobody to open the gates because he hasn’t been paid, there’s nobody to be working in the ground, steward or anything else or any other.
“whether they are on or off the pitch, there’s nobody being paid, so we’ve closed the ground. Now what are you going to do about it?
“What do you have to be, I say to the EFL, to be not a fit and proper owner?
“Now if you start putting things in place and other people start to get interested and say, this fellow, Chansiri, who’s holding the club to ransom, and by the way, last night was 100% right, there’s a lot of vindictiveness in this, don’t try to tell me he hasn’t got the money to pay some of the staff.
“He’s fallen out of love with the fans because as Gaz says, we hate him, he hates us. And he’s going to see us die by a thousand cuts.
“Now the only way to stop that is to go on strike. Don’t mind about your protests, throwing tennis balls on. You turn your back because I’ve gone to the loo or something else or you know, we do a bit of booing, you know, that never works.
“You close down that ground for the match against Leicester City and the whole world will stand up and we’d be all over the place and Mr Chansiri will be under a lot more pressure than just throwing a few tennis balls on the pitch. And that is said which due respect to all the fellas who’ve organised the protest.
“They’ve got us nowhere. Let’s be fair. They’ve got us nowhere. We’re worse off now than we ever were and we’re going down the pan and this fella wants to see us dead and buried.
“Now there’s only one people who can move in, the EFL. In fact, you might even get some, there must be multi-millionaires over the world who support Sheffield Wednesday. They mightn’t buy the club, but if I was a multi-millionaire, I’d certainly put some money in to make sure that we could pay the wages without selling everybody.
“Where does it end for crying out loud? He’s closing down a whole institution. This isn’t just like closing down a factory or closing down a chain of shops and everybody can sod off.
“There’s people who ringing up every day, you’re letting one man, not even an English man, close us down.
“It’s time we got onto the EFL and said, we’re not playing, we’re on strike and get everybody else behind us too. Because according to Alan Pardew today, this is a lesson for a lot of football clubs who evidently, I didn’t know the percentage, evidently there’s a stack of clubs losing a lot of money monthly.
“If you were owned by, let goodness knows, who’s gonna just say, oh I’ve had enough of this, I’ll walk away, let them go to hell.
“And what could Chansiri do if somebody came in and organised a football club and put some money into it?
“He’s gonna arrive over in Sheffield and say, oh hang on a minute, you’re on my pitch, do me a favour.
“You wouldn’t wanna be seeing that in England, let alone, so who’s gonna represent him for crying out loud even after he’s robbed the club blind?”
🗣️ “The only way to stop this is to go on strike.”
🗣️ “We’re going down the pan and this fella wants to see us dead and buried.”
A passionate call from Carl the Sheffield Wednesday fan tonight… #SWFC
Listen to the full show here 👉 https://t.co/ehRFfHKWaO pic.twitter.com/FRkxBJKAJV
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) July 31, 2025
