After Sheffield Wednesday were charged by the EFL for misconduct relating to their sale of Hillsborough, the Owls have responded to the Football League in a 290-word statement.
An investigation into the club was launched and the findings suggest there’s a lack of transparency over how and when the stadium was sold.
Sheff Wed owner Dejphon Chansiri risks being banned from football if found guilty of breaching the league’s financial regulations. Finance director John Redgate and former chief executive Katrien Meire are also implicated. The club could even be deducted points too.
Sides are only allowed to make a £39m loss over three years, but Wednesday would have fallen foul of that figure had they not sold their ground. As per BBC Sport, the ground was sold for £60m, helping them record a pre-tax profit of £2.5m for 2017-18.
Wednesday would have posted a pre-tax loss of £35.4m in 2017/18 after deficits of £9.8m and £20.8m in the previous two seasons. They needed to raise a lot of money to avoid a points deduction, which led to the stadium sale. Questions are being asked when the ground was sold and how much for, however.
EFL are confident they have had ‘sufficient evidence’ to charge, but the Owls have fought back and denied all allegations. Wednesday are also making a counter-claim for what they believe is ‘unlawful’ and ‘inaccurate reporting’.
The Championship outfit insist they acted above board with the backing of the EFL and have emails, letters and documents proving authorisation was given to the transaction.
Will Sheffield Wednesday be charged for misconduct?
Yes
No
Below is Wednesday’s statement in full:
“Sheffield Wednesday Football Club has today filed its response to the charges brought against it by the English Football League for alleged misconduct concerning the sale and leaseback of Hillsborough stadium and the inclusion of the profit on that sale in the Club’s 2017/18 accounts.
“The Club has informed the EFL that the charges are themselves unlawful and, without prejudice to that fact, are all denied by the Club and the other Respondents.
“The Club has reserved all of its rights against the EFL and will take all such actions as are necessary to protect its rights and integrity, and those of its current and former officers, including in relation to inaccurate reporting.
“The Club has also notified the EFL that it stands ready to bring a claim against the EFL to obtain compensation for its conduct.
“The Club maintains that it consulted with the relevant executive officers of the EFL in connection with the stadium transaction and that it acted in good faith.
“The Club has in its possession numerous emails, letters and other documents in which the EFL gave authorisation to the transaction, and on which authorisation the Club understood it could rely.
“That authorisation gave rise in law to a legitimate expectation that the transaction would be accepted by the EFL, which is binding on the EFL.
“The EFL is acting in breach of that binding legitimate expectation by retrospectively treating as misconduct that which it had itself previously authorised, and this makes the charges themselves unlawful.
“The Club is accordingly bringing its own claim against the EFL to establish that it is acting unlawfully, as well as standing ready, if necessary, to vigorously defend the charges.
“The Club will make no further comment at this time.”
Wednesday will now have to wait for a response from the EFL.
