ChinaOwl

I do honestly hope you are right. I also cannot wait to see the back of DC. However, I do not think it will be as easy as you suggest, and the new Football Regulator will have the teeth that many supporters are hoping for. There still has to be due process. If Chansiri thought there was a chance of being kicked out by the IFR, do you not think he would be jumping at any offer on the table rather than stubbornly digging his heels? I am fairly certain he will have sought legal guidance and clearly understand the situation. It's complex and will, at the very least, take months, if not years, to force him out, unless he fails to meet legal obligations related to HMRC or Companies House.

I hope you are right. But I bet this thing will not be as straightforward as you suggest. Nothing ever is!

Which, unfortunately, would take more time to complete.

It may be trickier than you are suggesting. My guess is that if Chansiri were backed into a corner, he would simply transfer ownership of the club to another party, likely his son or wife. Whilst it would be blatantly obvious what he has done and why, the legal position would be that he is no longer the owner and, therefore, charges brought by the Football Regulator do not apply in this situation. But nothing of any substance would have really changed.

A guy was arrested for joyriding. Tommy Tukamota.

Someone laughed at that. But Sheffield Wednesday is not unique in this type of collapse. Within the football supporting lifetime of many Owlstalk site members, a similar club in terms of stature and tradition went into freefall, dropping all the way from top-flight football to the fourth tier. That was Wolverhampton Wanderers. It took the emergence of a local lad to spark a rapid revival. That is sometimes all it takes to spark a major upturn in fortune. Just one local lad became club legend and saviour! Similarly, it is not that long ago that Brighton had no money, hardly any assets, and no stadium. They had to fight with the likes of Hereford to remain a football league club. Look where they are now. There is plenty of daylight beyond the doom and gloom - something can and will turn the tide!

I think he might be more at home on the right!

The only link is that Dejphon Chansiri is the son and brother of the Chairman and CEO, respectively. Thai Union has an operating model based on the purchase of global food businesses. They invest in such companies to make them leaner and more efficient, thereby increasing their profitability. When shareholders invest in Thai Union, that is what they expect to be buying into. Statements are issued to distance the company from any suggestion that it is involved in sports investment. That is to prevent shareholders from asking the executive board tricky questions at the AGM, as they are likely to do if they believe that the capital they have invested is being used in a manner they did not expect.

It is a publicly listed company. The capital belongs to the collective shareholders. Statements are put out to reassure shareholders. They care not a jot about Sheffield Wednesday. They care only about the share price and the return on personal investment.

Maybe we should crowdfund a ticket to Venice for the artist. Throw in a decent pair of waders for him/her too.

I think the financial regulators should initiate an investigation into D-taxis and Elev8, looking for any suspicious dealings behind these entities. It should then be possible to identify other irregularities up the chain. There may be perectly reasonable rationale behind establishing what appear to be shell companies. But that is the point I would start at.

I'm a sado-masochist.

I'm not sure who'd want Pedersen either. It just comes across as the kind of rounduns that would go through Chansiri's mind.

Or Chansiri has lost his marbles altogether, does not intend to sell, and has stuck Pedersen on a long contract, expecting a decent compensation package if Pedersen moves on? Who the feck can read Chansiri's mind?

If we go out of existence, will we get a points deduction?

Debts attached to the UK entity are readily identifiable. Annual accounts are issued annually. The primary asset, nominally valued at £60 million, is registered to an HK entity. Loans secured against it may be reflected through the UK entity or may be connected to a foreign entity and may not be shown in the UK accounts. It may be that the ground is the stumbling block to a sale if additional overseas financing is attached to it. This is the problem when registering associated interests overseas. It may be missing the mark altogether and Chansiri really isn't very bright. However, something appears to be holding him back from negotiating a sale at realistic valuations. Brinksmanship maybe, lack of serious offers maybe, but I rule out Chansiri doing this purely out of spite. I think he has to sell at or above a specific figure, otherwise he cannot satisfy external creditors.

They love a good old financial scandal!

C4 Dispatches or Panorama.

As a short-term injection of cash flow finance. It won't touch the sides of the finances required to operate a Championship football club, particularly if the EFL start withholding outside income streams.

That may be true, as the few saleable playing assets we had are being moved to other clubs at what appears to be less than market value. But how sustainable is that once all such players no longer exist and none are being brought in?

I play mental gymnastics with this one and still things fail to add up my head. Something tells me that somehow, somewhere, Chansiri has been doing something that makes liquidation a better option than a sale for anything less than £100 million. I get what people say. If he was lending against assets, they would show in the annual accounts, and be externally audited. But this is a guy that operates bogus companies. This is a guy that operates in Thailand, HK, and feck knows where else. He has separated the major asset from the UK based entity to one registered in HK. Everything is guesswork but it seems so murky. It just does not feel right.

If Dejphon had such an account, he would forget what name he gave it!

Even the payday loan companies want the money paid up front.

Pedersen should be among the Manager of the Season contenders if we can claw our way to nought!