Why Sheffield Wednesday takeover saga could take huge twist in May | OneFootball

The sale of Sheffield Wednesday has turned into more of a drama than anybody was expecting, and it might not be resolved until the spring.

The sale from administration of Sheffield Wednesday is taking a long time, and it could well take even longer. If it lasts until May, there could be big changes ahead.

It seems reasonable to say that 2026 has so far continued very much as 2025 ended for Sheffield Wednesday. On the pitch, relegation is already a certainty, and seems likely to become a mathematical one in just a few weeks' time. The team have failed to score in any of their eight matches in the League since Boxing Day, and they remain stuck adrift at the foot of the Championship table, now 39 points from safety and still on -7.

Behind the scenes, things aren't going much better. They lost Barry Bannan, Bailey Cadamarteri and Yisa Alao during the transfer window as the club sought to keep its financial head above water, and the takeover of the club by a consortium led by the former professional gambler and Sheffield United advisor James Bord still doesn't seem to be much closer to being completed.

Bord was announced as the preferred bidder for Sheffield Wednesday on Christmas Eve, but the EFL need to ratify those taking ownership of the club to satisfy their Owners & Directors Test, and this has not proved to be straightforward. And now it's become evident that there could be a further twist in this saga, should the matter not have been concluded by May.

The Independent Football Regulator could become involved if Sheffield Wednesday aren't sold by May

With it now having been 100 days since Sheffield Wednesday were put into administration on the 24th October, The Times have published a report into what has been going on at the club since then, and one detail has suggested that there could yet be a twist in the tail concerning the club's takeover.

They report that "If the EFL has not come to a decision by May, the newly-created Independent Football Regulator (IFR) will take on the case as that is when its powers come into effect". Adding that, "from that point, the IFR, led by David Kogan, has to ratify new owners and investigations can be raised into incumbent owners too if it has a reason to investigate".

The possibility of this eventuality already seems to be under consideration, with The Times adding "the IFR said that it is in contact with the EFL and the administrators".

The Sheffield Wednesday takeover is being delayed by the prospective owners' links to the gambling industry

Although James Bord has led the consortium to buy Sheffield Wednesday, he is not the only person to be involved with it, with the 31-year-old German entrepreneur Felix Römer, who owns a crypto-gambling casino, and Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamil, who is said to be a member of the Jordanian royal family, also on board.

The cause of the delay is related to the source of the funding to buy the club. The EFL are taking their time to establish whether the purchase would be largely funded by the proceeds of gambling and crypto-gambling operations. There is no public record of Bord’s wealth beyond reported career poker winnings of just over £3 million, and the buyers’ involvement in gambling could complicate the takeover.

Bord’s and Römer’s advisers said that the Wednesday bid was being privately funded, with the pair having made money through investments in technology and analytics, but actual information about this has also proved difficult to come by.

The FA has had a gambling ban in place for all participants, including club owners, since 2014. As existing owners at the time that the ban was brought in, special dispensation was given to Tony Bloom of Brighton & Hove Albion and Matthew Benham of Brentford to continue to trade. As part of that agreement, Bloom and Benham allow the accounts of their betting businesses, Starlizard and Smartodds respectively, to be independently audited on behalf of the FA.

It's not clear what exactly would change in the case of Sheffield Wednesday, were the takeover was not completed by the time that the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) comes into play in May, but the BBC reported in July 2025 that the regulator will have sweeping new powers, including:

With information about the EFL's ongoing investigation thin on the ground, there remains no end date in sight for the takeover of the club to be completed. With the season already disappearing from view and an iconic player and two highly promising youngsters lost in the January transfer window, for Sheffield Wednesday fans the resolution to this unhappy period in the club's history cannot come soon enough.