With tomorrow’s court hearing looming, the situation at Sheffield Wednesday is worrying for Owls fans and indeed for everyone who does not want to see an historic club in such difficulty. It is understood that the club will ask for a two week adjournment tomorrow so that they can continue discusssions with potential bidders, but whether that will be granted by the court remains to be seen.
With tomorrow’s court hearing looming, the situation at Sheffield Wednesday is worrying for Owls fans and indeed for everyone who does not want to see an historic club in such difficulty. It is understood that the club will ask for a two week adjournment tomorrow so that they can continue discusssions with potential bidders, but whether that will be granted by the court remains to be seen.
Former Leicester owner Milan Mandaric is now out of the picture with former Owls chairman Dave Allen rejecting his offer of £250,000 for his outstanding loans as ‘derisory’. Mandaric would have been a controversial choice anyway, having been criticised by the League Managers Association for his rapid turnover of managers.
Allen, who is now at Chesterfield, is prepared to write off the interest of £2.4m he is owed and accept the principal in three payments of £500,000 over three years. That is helpful, but it does not solve the underlying problem.
The Wednesday Forward group has offered to inject £5m to keep the club going for the rest of the year, but that is scarcely credible as it depends on the club making sufficient progress to raise enough funds to keep going.
It is possible that the Co-operative Bank, the main debtor, may simply pull the plug and put the club into administration before the court hearing but that would lead to a points penalty and set back hopes of promotion to the Championship.
City MPs David Blunkett and Nick Clegg have also tried to intervene, but it is doubtful whether the deputy prime minister can come up with any solution or affect the course of events.