Sheffield Wednesday fans may look at Bristol City takeover news with serious envy | OneFootball

The news that Bristol City could be set for a takeover bid by Turki Al-Sheikh may cause serious envious glances from Sheffield Wednesday fans.

Recent reports that Bristol City could be subject to a takeover bid from the Saudi Arabian sports promoter Turki Al-Sheikh could well cause some envious glances from Sheffield Wednesday fans.

There still seems to be no immediate end to the agony of Sheffield Wednesday supporters.

Second from bottom in the Championship with one point from their opening five games, Henrik Pedersen's threadbare team has now been eliminated from the EFL Cup at home by League Two Grimsby Town, while the news that Dejphon Chansiri is now seeking outside financial investment to continue to keep hold of the club indicates that there is no realistic prospect of the hated owner selling the club in the foreseeable future.

But this isn't to say that there is no takeover news in the Championship at the moment.

There have been reports that the Saudi boxing promoter Turki Al-Sheikh is set to launch a takeover bid for Bristol City, and while there are no guarantees that such a bid will be successful, the very fact that somebody wealthy could be set to launch an attempt to take over another club in the same division will cause some envious glances from Wednesday fans who are desperate for their club to be sold.

Turki Al-Sheikh's interest in Bristol City has been known about since June

By the time that Turki Al-Shiekh's name was first connected with Bristol City, it was already common knowledge that Sheffield Wednesday had been mentioned to him by the former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan.

Jordan had suggested Wednesday as a possible club for Al-Sheikh to investigate at the end of May, but added that the Saudi wanted a club in the south of England. Southampton and Millwall were the two names linked to him at that time.

Reports of Al-Sheikh's interest in buying into Bristol City emerged several weeks later, but nothing proceeded at that particular time. However, journalist Alan Nixon revealed in the middle of September that Al-Sheikh's prior interest hadn't gone anywhere and that it "has developed into a formal bid being put together and an offer about to be made", and that he was "also looking at buying a property in the area to make it a base when he is in England."

Sheffield Wednesday may be 'bigger' than Bristol City, but they come with far bigger problems too

Whether Turki Al-Sheikh could be tempted to swap the Cotswolds for the Yorkshire Dales remains to be seen, but there is something telling about the fact that Bristol City may be the current object of his affections. In theory, it might be considered that Sheffield Wednesday are the 'bigger' club of the two, with a 39,000-capacity stadium and a Premier League-sized fan base.

But this is a surface-level reading of the state of the two clubs. Hillsborough may be bigger than Ashton Gate, but it's also dilapidated and would require millions of pounds of investment to drag it into the 21st century, whereas Bristol City's home has been substantially renovated, with two new stands having been built there in the last eleven years.

And while Sheffield Wednesday currently have a threadbare first team squad which seems unlikely to stay in the Championship last season, Bristol City reached the play-offs at the end of last season and have had a decent start to 2025-26, as well. Tens of millions of pounds may be necessary just to make Sheffield Wednesday competitive again.

Furthermore, while we don't know what the Lansdown family, who own Bristol City, would want for the club, we also know that Dejphon Chansiri's valuation of Sheffield Wednesday appears massively over-inflated, with little indication that he's shifted from his £100 million valuation of it.

City are part of the Bristol Sport group, which also includes the Bristol Bears rugby union club and the Bristol Panthers basketball team. Extricating City from that might not be easy, and the Lansdowns have given no indication of actually even wanting to sell up.

It's not difficult to see why Simon Jordan recommended Sheffield Wednesday to Al-Sheikh. They are one of English football's Grand Old Teams, with almost 160 years of history, a big fan base, and the obvious potential to be able to make the Premier League under the right guidance.

But there has been one big Chansiri-shaped reason why Wednesday have not been sold, and until his demands are more realistic or the new independent regulator forces the issue, it seems likely that the interest of cannier would-be club owners will remain to look elsewhere for better value.

And that will only further vex the club's supporters, some of whom may already be worried about whether they'll even have a club left to support by the end of this season.