Dejphon Chansiri slammed for allowing "disgraceful" situation with Hillsborough's North Stand | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday may start the 2025/26 campaign with their North Stand closed

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Sheffield Wednesday have suffered a nightmare summer, and it doesn’t look to be getting better anytime soon.

There has been continuous debate over whether Danny Rohl will remain as manager, players exiting for free due to wages not being paid and takeover rumours that haven’t materialised at this moment in time.

This bad news was compounded recently as news broke that the North Stand at Hillsborough may not be open in time for the start of the 2025/26 campaign.

Safety concerns have been listed as the reason behind this, with “extensive corrosion” in the roof and not allowing the appropriate authorities to deem it safe.

Wednesday were aware of this issue, as they requested to play their first league game away from home.

Football League World’s Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, believes that the current state of the North Stand sums up the Owls’ owner.

Dejphon Chansiri slammed for recent Hillsborough North Stand development

“I think this is a disgraceful situation the club have found itself in,” exclaimed Patrick. “This stand used to be something that was admired; it was unique in its architecture.

“Now it’s crumbling down, which is a massive shame and it sums up the negligence of the Dejphon Chansiri era. It's not like this is a recent thing, the stand has been getting worse and worse. It's an issue that has been consistently ignored.

“The fact is, we are tainting our own brand's safety currently, and we're lucky that nothing has happened so far in terms of injury. But if the stand is shut down, it's just going to keep creating more problems for the club.

“We've charged people good money to sit in these seats, and they may be shunted somewhere else on the ground at short notice, whilst it also stops us putting on any general sale tickets.

“It is just symbolic of the Chansiri nature. Incompetence and a lack of care. The stand is falling down further now. You can't use the excuse of FFP as well because money on infrastructure is separate.

“This is something that needs to be sorted as soon as possible.”

Sheffield Wednesday will hope to resolve North Stand situation as soon as possible

With so much negativity swirling around Sheffield Wednesday right now, further bad news in the form of a closed stand is the last thing the club needed.

The North Stand has a capacity of 9,255 and if shut, would see Hillsborough’s capacity fall to just above 30,000.

Fans will have bought tickets to be situated in that area and will subsequently need to be moved, which is extra work the Owls don’t need during this hectic period.

The situation somewhat optimizes the current state of Wednesday on the whole, so rectifying this issue before it spirals into a good portion of the campaign should be a top priority.