David Storch "sends right message" at Sheffield Wednesday axing Chansiri-led change | OneFootball

The prospective new Sheffield Wednesday owner is set to change the club's badge, and FLW's Owls pundit feels this is an important break with the past.

Sheffield Wednesday could be set for big changes, providing the sale of the club to the Storch family's Arise Capital gets over the line.

As a wretched 2025-26 season enters its final straits, Sheffield Wednesday fans are clamouring for change. The club were relegated to League One at the end of February and have been in administration since the end of October, but that protracted process is now nearing its end and Wednesday fans can start looking forward to the future.

There's a lot of work to be done around the club. A new squad will have to be built for the club's return to League One, and Hillsborough itself requires a lot of renovation work. And next season won't necessarily be easy. The club are still likely to be hit with a 15-point deduction over a failure to pay unsecured creditors a minimum of 25p in the pound as a dividend from their administration.

But there are also other - arguably less pressing - matters that the new ownership can use to signal the start of a new era, and it has been reported that David Storch, who's leading Arise, is likely to change the club's badge upon completing his takeover of the club. The current Sheffield Wednesday badge has been in use since 2016, after being introduced by former owner Dejphon Chansiri.

"He respects the history of the club" - Storch praised over Sheffield Wednesday badge news

Football League World have spoken to our resident Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit, Patrick McKenna, about the proposed changes to the club badge, and he is enthusiastic about what this decision says about David Storch's attitude towards the club: "That's a real win for himself and his consortium. It also shows that he respects the history of the club and the feelings of the fans."

Patrick feels that the current Sheffield Wednesday badge is tainted by its association with the person who introduced it in the first place: "The whole changing of the badge under Chansiri was symbolic of his tone-deaf attitude, where he didn't care about the club or the fans, and he'd rather have changed it to something that he liked.

"It's a badge that no-one really took to, and now it's got an association with his era," he continued, "Storch has come in, and he's done a bit of research, and he knows that this oval badge is popular with the fans. He's obviously thinking it's not a hard thing to do, and he can change it for next season."

And while Patrick understands that there are many more important jobs that need to be done at Hillsborough this summer, getting rid of the badge that's associated with the club's former owner will be a hit with fans: "Obviously, there's a lot more that needs to be done - a lot of major changes - but something like to get the fans on board, it sends the right message. I'm really behind these plans and I hope we see the old crest back on the shirts next season."

Changing the badge is a way of helping to set Sheffield Wednesday free from a dysfunctional past

The current Sheffield Wednesday badge was reintroduced by former owner Dejphon Chansiri in 2016, shortly after he took ownership of the club. It was a reversion to the badge that was used by the club between 1956 and 1970. The badge was, upon its return, welcomed by supporters of the club.

Times, however, change, and over the decade since it was reintroduced, it has come to be associated with a period in the club's history that fans would sooner forget, meaning that it's no surprise that the new owners of the club would like to remove that connection and give the club a symbol which represents a brighter future.

Putting this club back on their feet is going to be complex. The playing staff this season has been threadbare as a result of transfer embargoes and wage restrictions, while the future of manager Henrik Pedersen remains unclear. HIllsborough was left to wither on the vine under Chansiri's ownership, meaning that there is a lot of work required to be done on the stadium in order to drag it into the 21st century.

But owning a modern football club is also a battle for hearts and minds, and Sheffield Wednesday fans need to be brought onside to give the club its best chance of getting the club back on track. Changing the badge is a straightforward decision which speaks volumes about breaking free from a dysfunctional past, which sends a very clear message, that the ownership of the Storch family will be about a better future and putting a difficult decade behind them.