Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri urges fans to stump up £2m to save club amid cash flow issues

The Owls were recently placed under an EFL registration embargo as a result of money owed to HM Revenue and Customs.

Chansiri has directly addressed the development in an interview with The Star, laying out how fans could step in to aid the club.

He said: “With HMRC, if we don’t pay until, say, the fifth of November, then that means it’s been 14 days, but if we don’t pay wages as well then that’s five days - that means a total of 19 days. Each issue counts separately.

“If 20,000 people gave £100 then it’s £2m, and it’d be clear - so we can finish it. That would cover everything, HMRC and the wages. That would need to be done before November 10th if they don’t want to pass the 30 days, but that means that there can be no next time. It’d need to be before to make it safe - if it was on the fifth then there would be 10 days left… If we were to hit 30 days then we’ll get a ban for three windows.”

Chansiri has denied withholding funds to assert power, claiming people “do not understand” how important the club is to him.

He said: “Why would I need to play a game? If I don’t pay my staff and they get mad with me then my club is going to be worse. If the staff don’t get money, they don’t do their job and the club is worse off.

"Why would I take the risk to make problems for my people? That is my last choice to do. I always try to protect my people as much as I can, but if I try my best and cannot do it, then my people must understand.

"If they don’t understand then I cannot help that. I can create trouble since Covid if I want to, I did not do it. You do not understand how important this club is to me and my family. I have been here nine years and it is a part of my life.”

Chansiri insisted cash flow issues are “normal in business now” before going to on to address pleas made to him by fans.

He said: “We have a problem with cash flow. Money has not come in time, you have to understand that businessmen invest and do not keep cash in hand, we never keep money in the bank. We spend and invest.

"Of course we need to get money back. If the cash flow is bad then we have a problem. I am not broke, the problem is cash flow.

“If I had money in the bank, why wouldn’t I pay? There is no cash flow, money is not in the bank, how am I going to pay? I need to wait until money comes in. I did it last month, if I did not inject money I would have already done it. There was no need to wait until this month.

“All over the world there is a shortage of cash flow because of the economy, of Covid, of Russia, Israel. This is normal in business now and I need to accept that because the club relies on my money.

"The people who owe me money in business have not paid on time because they are short of cash flow too. It is a domino, it will affect more people. What can I do? We prepare but the money has not come. If they do not do that, what can I do? This situation is happening all over the world.

“Those who say it is their club, when it was clear we had an issue with HMRC, people came out and said ‘Chairman, you need to take responsibility to pay’, that if we don’t pay we have to sell ‘our club’ - why do they say ‘our club’? I never heard any fan say ‘we need to prepare to save our club’, they just say I have to leave. It’s funny, they say they are owners and I am custodian.

“We try to generate money for the club as best as we can. We need to try to get money but the negative fans don’t help. I am not blaming fans. I am not blaming, I am explaining they don’t help.

"People (potential sponsors) don’t know us, they just see us on social media, so why are they going to sponsor us when they just see rubbish all the time? We need fans in bad times as well as good.”