Sheffield Wednesday takeover: 3 main contenders after James Bord collapse | OneFootball

FLW has looked at those who remain in strong contention to fulfil a potential takeover at Hillsborough

Sheffield Wednesday's takeover saga took its biggest twist last week, when it was confirmed that the consortium led by former professional poker player, James Bord, had withdrawn from the process.

The Owls have been in the hands of joint-administrators, Paul Stanley, Julian Pitts and Kris Wigfield of Begbies Traynor since October 24th, although exactly two months later, the trio named Bord as their preferred bidder when it came to securing long-term investment of the Hillsborough outfit.

Bord's current associations with football include being a co-owner of Dunfermline Athletic of the Scottish Championship, holding stakes in Córdoba CF - for which he is being sued by Jonathan Cohen - and Septemvri Sofia and previously using his company, Short Circuit Science, to previously advise Steel City rivals, Sheffield United, on a largely unsuccessful AI-based transfer policy under the ownership of COH Sports.

The London native had put his consortium together alongside Felix Roemer and Alsharif Faisal bin Jamil. However, the £47.8m offer which they placed on the table to the administrators has been withdrawn.

The key reasons behind such developments are reportedly the sourcing of funds - due to Bord's links to gambling and crypto-gambling - and the overall complexity of the bid.

It has since been reported by Alan Nixon that the administrators are wanting to see fresh bids from those who remain interested in a takeover submitted by the end of this coming week, as the club look for a swift resolution to the saga after their expected relegation to League One was confirmed.

With that being said, Football League World have looked at which three bidders are the main contenders based off recent reports, whilst assessing their individual predicaments.

Mike Ashley

Perhaps the most high-profile out of the three heavily-linked bidders is Mike Ashley, who is looking for a route back into the world of football ownership almost five years after he sold Newcastle United for £305m to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

The 61-year-old was certainly an opinion-splitter at St James' Park, and that has been the case since he first became linked with a potential takeover of Wednesday in the Autumn.

Whilst also eyeing up a potential move for divisional rivals, Derby County, it was revealed on November 26th that Ashley had submitted an unsuccessful £20m bid to complete a takeover, before it was revealed that he was ready to make another move should the Bord-led bid collapse.

It has since been claimed by local journalist, Alan Biggs, that Ashley is attempting a deal worth approximately £100m with the EFL, which would see the threat of a 15-point deduction at the start of next season - for the failure of not exiting administration properly - removed.

David Storch

Another heavily-linked potential custodian is David Storch.

The Storch family have been the subject of takeover links in the EFL for almost 12 months now, having previously entertained the idea of acquiring League One side, Plymouth Argyle, in the summer, as part of a consortium led by ex-Real Madrid and Wales ace, Gareth Bale.

Whilst the family's overall net worth is believed to surpass the £1bn mark, it was revealed in December that they had joined forces with American investor, John McEvoy, in an attempt to strike a deal to take control of the cash-strapped Owls.

Although such feats failed to materialise as Bord was named as the initial preferred bidder, Storch, like Ashley, has been watching developments closely and recently expressed his confidence that he would be able to lodge a successful bid to help Wednesday enter a positive era.

Ryan Howsam

The third main contender is Sheffield-born, Ryan Howsam.

The insurance tycoon revealed in December that he was the force behind the surfacing of links that saw ex-Crystal Palace owner and talkSPORT pundit, Simon Jordan, emerge as a potential chairman of the Owls, and he has now outlined that it would take one major condition for himself to take on that particular role on an individual basis.

With Jordan ruling himself out of making a first concrete bid for the South Yorkshire side, Howsam has revealed that the only way which he would take the club on is the removal of the aforementioned 15-point sanction, which is impacted by the fact that controversial former owner, Dejphon Chansiri, would make around £15m if the price point of £30m is met due to his status as a creditor.

“I've had a chat with [Simon Jordan] actually,” said Howsam.

“But I think ultimately the reality is that there's no way I will be paying the minimum amount to get the club without a sanction.

“So the only way that I would entertain anything would be on the basis of them coming to the table and saying that there would be no sanctioning at the bid that I would put in," he explained.

“That’s just the reality of it.