New Sheffield Wednesday takeover twist emerges - good news coming? | OneFootball

The proposed sale of the club has run into some issues this week, but a meeting between the new owners and the administrators may allay some fears.

The prospective new owners of Sheffield Wednesday have held a "summit meeting" with the club's administrators, as the target date for completion of the sale of the club draws close.

The future of Sheffield Wednesday has been up in the air for the whole of this season, but the point at which the future of the club can begin is now drawing close.

The convoluted saga which started towards the end of last season with reports that wages at the club were being paid late has cast a very long shadow over their season. Transfer embargoes fatally torpedoed any chance that manager Henrik Pedersen had of building a competitive team in the Championship, and points deductions for financial misdemeanours and entering admininstration left the club with a negative points tally that has proved impossible to even come close to overcoming.

But after six months in administration and one failed bid, the second preferred bidders for the club set a target of the 1st May for the sale of the club to be completed, and they have now held a "summit meeting" with the club's administrators, Begbies Traynor, amid ongoing speculation concerning future punishments for the start of next season and how they might be avoided.

Wednesday summit confirmed as "a positive day" by club administrator Wigfield

Reporting to his Patreon on Thursday evening, journalist Alan Nixon confirmed that a "summit meeting" has been held between Arise Capital, the consortium put together by the father and son Storches, who are now preferred bidders for Sheffield Wednesday, and Begbies Traynor, the insolvency practitioners dealing with the administration.

There had been concerns over the possibility that this second bid could be about to hit the rocks following a statement by David Storch addressing the 15-point deduction that the club could receive for the start of next season and other challenges that will be faced by the new owners once the sale is confirmed.

Nixon confirms, however, that the sale is "going ahead" and that these fears were set aside at the meeting. He reports that one of the subjects discussed was how a solution might be found which offers creditors the 25p in the pound dividend required by the EFL to avoid a 15-point deduction at the start of next season.

The Storches had hoped that negotiations with the EFL would bear fruit in this respect, but this turned out not to be the case, meaning that getting former owner Dejphon Chansiri - who's by far the club's biggest creditor - to reduce the size of his claim is their best option for eliminating the threat of starting next season at a distinct disadvantage in League One.

Posting to the social media platform X after the event, administrator Kris Wigfield confirmed that it had been "a positive day", and that, "All parties [are] pulling in the same direction" over the sale.

There is still plenty of good reason to believe that the Sheffield Wednesday will be completed for the 1st May

EFL rules for exiting administration have thrown a spanner in the works of confirming the sale of Sheffield Wednesday to Arise Capital. These rules confirm that clubs exiting administration have to pay all creditors a minimum dividend of 25p in the pound or face a 15-point deduction for the next season. The first preferred bidders for the club, a consortium headed by the professional gambler James Bord, met this threshold, but this hasn't been the case with the Arise bid.

It had initially been reported that the club's former owner, Dejphon Chansiri, had been ignoring attempts on the part of the Storches to negotiate over the amount of money that he is owed. Should Chansiri reduce his claim by a sufficient amount, the club could yet meet that 25p dividend threshold. But fresh reporting contradicted this, indicating that Chansiri is prepared to talk. He has no legal obligation to do this but, considering that the money that he is owed is for loans put into the club which fuelled his own mismanagement of the club, there's a strong case to say that he has a moral obligation to do so.

Storch's statement also raised concerns over whether his bid for the club might also be withdrawn. It detailed much of the work that is required to be done to Hillsborough stadium itself. It is clear that little to no renovation work has been carried out there for some considerable time, and that urgent work is required to be carried out before the start of next season. With the first-team squad also needing a complete rebuild, this is going to be an expensive year for the club's new owners.

The social media post from Kris Wigfield will settle some fears, though. A deadline of the 1st May had been set to complete the sale, in no small part because this is when the Independent Football Regulator takes over control of this entire area from the EFL. Wigfield's comments confirm that, although there is understandable skittishness surrounding this bid and most Sheffield Wednesday fans won't be able to exhale until the contracts have been signed, there is still plenty of room to be optimistic that a new future for the club is in line to be delivered on time.